Billboard (click for PDF)

In autumn 2007, the West Midlands Casualty Reduction Scheme launched a campaign, aimed at 17 to 24 year olds, to help reduce casualties and deaths on the region's roads.

The campaign focused on teenagers and young adults and empowering passengers to speak up when they feel their driver is going too fast. The campaign featured hard hitting visuals of the aftermath of a collision.

Billboards, bus, magazine and cinema advertising ran throughout October and the campaign also featured in local colleges and at freshers' fairs across the Midlands region.

Poster (click for PDF)

The campaign targeted a difficult group, but drew on research showing that drivers of that age group don't make the connection between speeding and dangerous driving and passengers often feel as though they can't speak up when their driver is driving carelessly. The majority don't think an accident will happen to them and some even admit to getting a buzz out of driving fast.

A quarter of young drivers admit a passenger has asked them to drive more safely. But many more passengers are unwilling or don't feel able to challenge the driver. Yet about a third of UK drivers killed or seriously injured on UK roads are aged 17-24, despite accounting for just 13% of licence holders. And it's not just themselves they injure or kill. In 2005, nearly 2,000 passengers aged 17-24 were killed or seriously injured.

A spokesperson for the Casualty Reduction Scheme said:

"There is a disproportionate number of young drivers being killed and seriously injured on the roads of the West Midlands. This hard hitting campaign is aimed at passengers not being afraid to speak and up and tell their drivers to slow down. Quite often passengers feel uncomfortable in telling their drivers to alter the way they drive but in some instances the consequences of not doing so can be fatal."