Coitus interruptus?
There is an advertisement on Irish television at the moment that irritates the hell out of me.
Nearly all advertisements irritate me, but this one is particularly bad.
It is a very clever bit of filming and the effects are quite spectacular. Obviously it cost a lot of money, which annoys me too, as it’s my money. The film was made by our beautiful government, out of the public coffers.
If you live in Ireland, North or South, doubtless you have seen it –
Incidentally, this is the Southern version. The Northern version is absolutely identical except for the registration plate!
Why does it irritate me?
It is supposed to be a warning against the dangers of speeding. We see Yer Man getting his rocks off with the local slapper, and then we see a car flying through the air at him.
Then we come to the really annoying bit – the stern judge [who is probably pissed off because he has been dragged away from his porn collection] announces that “it is quite clear that you were driving too fast to cope with the unexpected”.
In my book, the poor bastard didn’t do anything wrong. He is driving along a quiet country road that is nice and straight. There is no obvious speed restriction [though in this God forsaken country there probably is a 20MPH limit there]. There is a broken white line down the centre of the road. Visibility is good and the road is dry. I would overtake there and so would 99% of other drivers.
So he overtakes a car and a dog runs out. These things happen, though they are extremely rare. I’d have prosecuted the dog, or its owner. I wouldn’t say the driver broke the law though. He was just unlucky.
Now if it had been a warning about the dangers of shagging the local bike in public at the side of the road…………?
Here here. The idea that speed is in itself dangerous is a total nonsense. It all depends on the circumstances. I was caught for doing 45 in a 30mph zone on a Glasgow dual carriageway when there was hardly any traffic and pedestrians could only cross at traffic lights. Where was the danger?
I see Swindon Council in England is to stop paying for speed cameras as they don’t think they make much difference to the road casualty rate. They’re going to spend the money on other road safety measures instead. Good for them.
Sometimes you make me sorry I don’t have television. Today you’ve made me glad. Those road ‘safety’ adverts were the worst, especially when they show you parents screaming over dead blood-covered children. My brother was killed in a road traffic accident, and the last thing I want to see in the middle of QI or the Simpsons is THAT.
If they really wanted to make the roads safer, they’d put verges on them, straighten them in the worst spots, improve visibility, keep them repaired, and oh why go on. It won’t happen here.
Isn’t that the point? Even on what looks like the straightest patch of road imaginable, something unexpected could happen that could lead to the worst possible outcome. In the ad the driver assumes he is totally in control of the situation and so can drive as fast as he wants – and he nearly rear-ends the other car. The point is, no matter how good a driver you think you are, you should still take into account that what you are driving is a weapon, and should always be cautious.
I agree that these ads tend to be over-the-top and too graphic, but if it shocks one idiot into being more careful then it’s worth it.
Nick – I have said it time and time again that speed is not dangerous. What kills is bad driving and people driving beyond they capabilities. What ’caused’ the film accident was not speed but bad driver reaction under the circumstances.
Susan – I’m sorry to hear about your brother. To an extent I agree about spending money on the roads themselves, but there is a strong argument that straightening roads only leads to increased complacency and more dangerous driving. As an extreme example – if you have a narrow winding road, no one is going to be able to speed, overtake or do anything reckless. However, a long straight stretch eggs the boy racers into crazy overtaking and the like?
Edladd – There is always the unexpected, but worrying about it can be taken to the extreme. A good driver can cope with the unexpected in most cases. In the film example, most good drivers would have kept straight on until it was safe to pull back to the left. It would have been somewhat tough on the dog, but it won’t run out on the road again!!
while it’s a harsh judgement to make, you should never swerve a car to avoid an animal on the road, by all means hit the brakes ( so long as there isn’t someone tailgating) but swerving a car hard at any speed is asking for trouble.
As for what this ad says to me…
Don’t go neckin at the oul crossroads 🙂
It makes no impact on me as a road safety campaign and the sooner that the Gardai and the government realise that a drunk politician driving the wrong way on one of the busiest dual carriageways in the country is far more likely to kill someone than someone driving a wee bit over the speed limit the better.
I spend a lot of time on Irish roads and recently I was very nearly involved in what could have been a very serious accident. Driving along the M7, at the speed limit, as I came to one of the on-ramps a tractor was trundling down it at about 30MPH with a string of cars behind it
As soon as the first car behing the tractor could, he swung from the filter lane across the left lane (and it’s traffic) and was moving into the overtaking lane at approx. 35Mph, it was nothing short of a miracle that I didn’t hit the spanner. As it was I had most of my car on the centre margin to avoid a very nasty accident. All because some impatient idiot didn’t think to check his mirrors before pulling out. Oh and the muppet hadn’t even indicated
Now if I hadn’t avoided that idiot, I’m pretty sure I would have been seriously hurt if not killed and blamed for the accident as I would have rear-ended him.
What I’m getting at here is that road safety is about far more than speeding and drink driving and the amount of people on our roads who can’t even manage the basics of keeping left, mirror-indicate-mirror-manouver is terrifying (and scarier still when you see Gardai and traffic corp at it), but it’s alright so long as they’re not pissed and/or flying low.
The judge hit the nail on the head that he was driving too fast to cope with an unexpected event. And it’s not like there weren’t any other cars. Notice how the car that flipped him into a spin subsequently crashed head-on into a car coming in the opposite direction.
Besides, I don’t want to get started on things like this, otherwise I’ll start posting NASCAR crash compilation videos…
I work on the second floor of a four storey office block in the centre of Leicester. Right outside my window all day is the sound of sirens – fire, police and ambulance for this is an eight lane race track outside.
Everybody rushing, people getting angry because the lights have changed – all manner of life (and death) is happening on that road daily – and constantly! Thank goodness for ibuprofen,
I don’t think it matters whether it is an open road in the countryside or crazy stuff in the town. There will always be accidents and there will always be guilt – I think that that sort of advertising only preaches to the converted – it doesn’t touch the nutters because they don’t realise what they are. Personally I find ads like these most distressing.
The fact that the local slapper looks identical to Victoria Beckham should have been foreseen by the advertisers as a big mistake. Whatever the message, it is completely lost after her image appears, as viewers all ask each other –
“Isn’t that Posh Spice?”
“Nah”
“Tis her!”
(Heated argument ensues during car-flipping / courtroom scenes)
“There she is again in the wheelchair, see?”
“Jaysus, I think you’re right! Put on a bit o’ weight all de same”
“Never mind the weight, at least she’s quit de singin wha?”
On a serious note, I agree about sheer bad luck.
Instead of the overtaking move, the car in front could have suddenly jammed on the brakes as the dog ran out on the road, the back car ploughing into it’s rear, resulting in a similar devastating end result.
Not enough drivers on our roads know the rules of the road and what to do in an emergency situation. Half of them don’t even indicate…so we have a long way to go…
As someone who recently passed my test (i’m 32 and didn’t need a car till this year), I can’t believe that I’m allowed to drive on motorways, dual carriage ways and even national or regional roads. All of my practice and my test was conducted in a city environment at speeds not faster than 60 kph. No wonder people don’t know what to do in an emergency situation. I was never taught or tested on how to overtake, or drive at speeds in excess of 100 kph.
George – Spot on. Never swerve to avoid a dog unless you are absolutely sure that it is safe to do so. There are a minority of drivers in this country that plainly should never be on the road. Unfortunately they cause the chaos for the rest of us.
TheChrisD – No judge would pass a comment like that. It is a ridiculous scenario anyway. And as a matter of interest, where the fuck did the third car come from??? It isn’t in view when he overtakes!
Kate – I have held a licence for the last forty one years. Never once, in all the many miles I have driven, have I thought about an ad and been influenced by it. Waste of time and money…
S. Hoop – She’s too good looking to be Beckham. The latter is just an anorexic stick.
If the overtaker had just jammed on the brakes, he would have flattened the dog anyway. If the other car went into the back of him then there would have been damage, but probably no injury.
I’m still baffled by that third car though…. 😮
Welcome Frank! Nearly missed you there… Were you tested on black ice? Snow? Fog? The driving test is a farce. It is a convenient label to say that someone is able to drive under suburban conditions, at best. It does however give a false impression that the new licence holder can drive. It is one of the main causes of carnage on our roads.
Interestingly I live in Swindon where they’re going to pull the speed cameras that Nick referred to. The arguments are flying here, for and against – but it will be interesting to watch the outcome!
I haven’t been driving as long as you GD but curiously in my 17 years I’ve been involved in 3 accidents while driving, The first was my own fault (young and stoopid) and I learned from that experience and haven’t rearended anyone since 😉 The other 2, I was rear ended, none of these incidents happened at more than 30 mph and both times I was rearended I was in fact stationary on clear days and with good visability, go figure. I’m just glad that I’ve escaped without any harm to myself on all occasions.
Another weird coincidence both time I was rearended it was by a blue Citreon Kangoo, when I see one in my rearview these days I tend to stay outta their way 🙂
In the cases where I was rearended if I had been speeding previous to the incident I would not have been there to get hit, irony or what! 😀
The old question. Is there such a thing as a road accident? Or, is there always fault. Probably the latter.
tt if you look hard enough at anything you can blame it on someone.
For instance in the ad in question here, the dog owner is the one responsible for the accident, if they hadn’t been letting the dog run loose then the driver would not have had to deal with the thing running in front of him.
But also you could blame the overtaking driver for swerving into traffic rather than away from it. If he’d swerved the other way he would have had an accident but at least he wouldn’t have involved anyone else.
Or, as the ad suggests, that the overtaking driver was speeding, although that’s a bit sketchy, how does the judge know what speed he was travelling at?
P.s. anyone else notice the lack of the dog in the first scene with the crash?
Kieron – It really all depends on the speed limits. We have stretches of motorway that are 60kmph and rural roads with no houses that are 50kmph. Mad speed limits cause law breaking, but not necessarily bad driving.
George – I have lost count of the accidents I have had. One car [a Fiesta] had something like eight accidents and in no case was the car even moving!! My very first accident was my fault, but the rest have been idiots running into me.
TT – There are accidents that are faultless but they are rare. Sudden catastrophic mechanical failure is one example. We can’t be expected to x-ray all components of the car at intervals? I have had two near misses in the past. One was an axle failure and the other was a tyre blow-out [it was a fairly new tyre].
George [again] – Yes. If anyone is really to blame it’s the dog owner as dogs should be under control at all time on the public highway. The driver did swerve in the wrong direction, but that is an example of bad training.
First I was worried about where the third car came from. Now I have to worry about where the dog went to. DAMN! Maybe the dog transformed into a car?
No, the dog owner isn’t the one resposible for the accident. Could have been a wild animal. You gonna blame Bambi’s mum?
The fact is you are supposed to take reasonable care when driving, taking into account conditions. Out in the country, animals about, narrow country lane, hedgerows, limited visibility. To go tearassing by a car at a rate of knots like that chancing that there are no dogs, cats, deer etc about is irresponsible and the blame lies entirely with the driver. No question.
So put that in your pipe and smoke it.
TT – Driving in rural Ireland you cannot possibly drive on the assumption that a wild animal is going to run out. No one would get anywhere. In the film example, it was a reasonably straight stretch of road with good visibilty and in my opinion, the overtaker did nothing wrong apart from pulling the wheel the wrong way.
Incidentally, he wasn’t exactly doing the ton down that road. We get a glimpse of a needle on the dash pointing to 6, implying 60?? In fact it is 6000 rpm, which in first gear isn’t that fast. So he is guilty of revving the fuck out of the engine all right! If he were doing any decent speed he would have gone right through the wall, and it would have been bye bye Beckham.
Another thing – I notice that Overtaker’s registration number changes during the incident!! And how come he can walk about after a nasty cartwheel? No whiplash??
LOL I should stop watching that ad, I just noticed that when you see the ‘flashback’ of the overtaking manouver near the end there is no junction ahead as he overtakes.
So a junction appeared out of no where, the dog appears out of nowhere then disappears, a car appeared. Bleedin nora there must be a hole in the time space continuem on that road, ye’d think the council would have stuck up a warning sign.
So it must have been the councils fault, Bleedin Politicians!!! 🙂
George – Maybe it’s the filmmakers who should be in court? Mind you, if Irish roads are full of space-time continua then it’s no wonder there are so many accidents? It would explain a lot.
I guess they must have faked it and it wasn’t a real accident. (TIC)
Oh! My! God! Do you mean that isn’t a real accident? My faith in television has been shattered.
His manouevre does look slightly stupid to me but what is far more stupid is swerving wildly to avoid a dog. I was doing about 80 in a 60 zone recently when a cat ran out in front of me. I moved the car slightly to try and avoid it but i wasn’t going to take the car off the road and kill myself and my passenger for the sake of a cat. I don’t know if I hit it or not (I felt no bump at all) but to be honest I’m not going to lose too much sleep over it.
Those preachy ads are annoying, a more realistic version would be better.