Ireland

One of the problems faced by every road safety body is that the consequences of drink driving are abstract to people that have never felt them. It’s hard to imagine losing your licence, ending up in prison, killing someone, or being left with permanent disabilities because most of us have never experienced these things. We can logically understand them, but we don’t feel them. For the first time, using Virtual Reality, we could create a shocking and deeply resonant immersive experience and make these consequences feel real.
Data collected by the organisation showed that there had been a resurgence in drink driving in Ireland. A legacy of historical anti-drink driving advertising had reduced the behaviour, but a new cohort of younger people, who have never been exposed to it, were drinking and driving anew. These findings instigated creating a campaign to help reduce this worrying trend against younger adult males who considered themselves invincible and immune to road traffic collisions. For the first time, using Virtual Reality (VR), we could create a shocking and deeply resonant immersive experience and make these consequences feel real.
Our response was ‘Consequences’: a cut-through VR experience that toured the country and challenged the user by putting them in the shoes of a drunk driver, bringing this serious message home in a completely new and immersive way. Different storylines allowed the user to experience the full extent of the agonising consequences of drink driving—from injury to prosecution.

Road deaths and serious injuries continued to increase in 2023 and it was projected to have the highest fatalities in six years. Preliminary Analysis of Road Traffic Fatalities from 1 January to 26 July showed that was a 10% increase in road fatalities compared to the same time the previous year. Increases were in driver, passenger and pedestrian deaths and the biggest increased was among those aged 16-25 years old. It also showed the counties that were experiencing the largest increases and that 49% of fatalities occurred between 8pm and 8am in 2023 and almost half of fatalities between Friday and Sunday.
Armed with this information we were challenged to develop a campaign that would help to curb the road fatalities trend in Ireland.

The challenges we were addressing included:
1. An increase in road fatalities and serious injuries on Irish roads
2. A high number of fatalities in urban areas (between 2018 and 2022 27% of fatalities occurred on an urban road, while 53% of serious injuries occurred on an urban road?
3. Moderate public and political support for lower default speed limits in urban areas. 68% of adults said they would be in favour of them on one or more road., There was only three in situ at the campaign's inception.
Research shows the high risk of speed when a pedestrian or cyclist is hit at 50km/h they have a 50% chance of living or hit at 60kmh, and that chance drops to 10%.
Our challenge was to develop a 30k town campaign to raise awareness of the benefits of a lower default speed limit in urban areas in a bid to garner public support for the implementation of an increased number throughout the country and thus help lower road fatalities and serious injuries in urban areas.
The video shows safe interaction between a number of road users to raise awareness of how lowering the speed limit in urban areas can lead to safer, greener, more livable towns and communities.

Between 2018 and 2022 there where 93 fatalities and 894 serious injury collisions in Irish roads which involved motorcyclists. No specific road safety programme aimed at motorcyclists existed at that time. It was identified that the vast majority of these collisions occurred over the Summer months and almost 50% at weekends and many involved leisure riders or those retuning to motorcycling. Ireland has a large number of rural roads, ideal for leisure riding but this also increases risk through road topography and additional hazards which adversely impact motorcycle safety compared to other road users.

The key objective is to improve the safety of learner drivers and provide a safe driving environment in which learners can practice safe driving skills. In primary research undertaken in 2018, 31% of Advanced Driving Instructors (ADIs) surveyed agreed that the Essential Driver Training programme (EDT) in Ireland did not provide a safe driving environment for learner drivers. Although it is illegal, driving unaccompanied is regularly done by a large percentage of learner drivers. As part of Phase 1 of the Road Safety Strategy (RSS) 2021-2024 a goal has been set to eliminate unaccompanied driving in Ireland by Q4 2024. The Behaviours and Attitudes Survey (2019) found 39% of learner drivers drive unaccompanied. In 2022, 5,929 learner drivers received penalty points for driving unaccompanied.

Ireland has a population of 5.5 million people, on average per year we have 11 fatalities and 45 serious injuries from road collisions with drivers pre-test (2007-2021 data). 80% of fatal collisions involved learner drivers who were driving unsupervised, while 75% of serious injury collisions involved unsupervised learner drivers. We know from research undertaken that collisions involving learner drivers reduce by 80% whilst accompanied. No one should die while learning to drive.

The main road safety challenge was enforcement of the current European & National legislations.
The install of Vision Heroes Lighting Kit enhances the rear of an LCV (trailers with drop sides or pick up units with drop sides) it greatly improves the presence of units parked with the Original equipped (O/E) rear lamps lit* and the rear doors open to 90’.
This includes rear taillights, Turn Signal & Hazzard’s which are all incorporated within the O/E Lamps.

We are focusing on the most common causation factors of accidents/collsions on roads.

We are tasking university marketing students to reimagine how road safety is marketed across the country. This is a very difficult task as we have found that a lot of the current marketing campaigns simply do not resonate with the target audience of 18 to 25 year olds. What this project has done is get them to focus on what is currently out there and to come up with new ways to connect with the audience in an effective marketing campaign.