A DRAMATIC new short film that uses gun imagery to highlight the dangers of reckless driving has been unveiled by the Road Safety Authority.
The video, entitled Loaded Weapon, was chosen by the authority from hundreds of entries to the Keep Drama off the Roads competition for a new advertisement created by a young person.
The winning film’s creator and script writer, Richard Lahart – an undergraduate science student in University College Cork – said he consciously left out disturbing scenes of violence in the hope people would see the film several times.
“Most of the ads that are shown are shockingly gruesome,” he said.
“They show the crashes and all the people mangled. I didn’t want any part of that in it because as soon as people see that ad once, they switch to a different channel.”
The most important message he wanted portrayed was that passengers had a responsibility while travelling in a car and that their actions could cause collisions.
The short film shows a group of young male friends going for a drive at night. It becomes increasingly clear their behaviour is reckless, a message that is reinforced by shots of them loading and pointing guns when they drive too fast or unbuckle seat belts. The film ends with the last seconds before a crash and the accompanying sound of a gun shot.
The video is available online only and has received almost 24,000 hits on YouTube since it was uploaded first in July.
Chief executive of the authority Noel Brett, at the official launch of the film yesterday in the Project Arts Centre in Dublin’s Temple Bar, said it was appalling that 52 young people had died on the roads here so far this year.