Giant mobile phones – displaying the final messages sent by drivers killed while using their device at the wheel – are going on display across Northumbria.
The ‘Last Text Tour’ forms part of the Northumbria Safer Roads Initiative’s (NSRI) long-standing Road Respect umbrella campaign, which targets young drivers in the north east of England.
The tour started in Newcastle (pictured) and is scheduled to visit Gateshead, Sunderland, Northumberland and South Tyneside over the coming weeks.
The centrepiece of the tour is an installation featuring six mobile phones, each showing a message sent by people who died as result of texting and driving.
A plaque on the back of each phone explains how each driver crashed, who they were texting and why they were doing so.
Road Respect hopes the visual nature of the installation will resonate with drivers and passengers – and encourage behavioural change behind the wheel.
The installation forms part of Road Respect’s ‘No Look, No Touch, No Phone’ campaign, which also sees the text messages displayed on billboards and petrol station forecourts – and across pubs and bars in beer mat and poster format.
The campaign messages will also be promoted via the Road Respect social media channels.
From my own observations it is clear that many drivers think that whilst they are stationary, at say traffic lights or in a traffic queue, that they are safe from prosecution whilst texting as they are not making a call????? only texting. One can see from them looking down to their lap and then the furtive glances all around to see what is happening in the real world that texting is what they are doing.
M.WORTHINGTON
+18