Face of Flanders: Laura

She isn’t really called Laura, and she isn’t really in a wheelchair, as we see when she stands up and walks towards the camera. She’s a young actress telling the story of Laura in the new campaign clip produced by the Belgian Institute for Road Safety (BIVV).

There really is a Laura, however, and she was involved in a serious accident 11 months ago that put her in a wheelchair. Laura was one of the 148 people injured in road accidents every day in Belgium, 13 of them seriously wounded. 

In the first half of this year, there were 27,180 people injured on Belgian roads, 8% more than the same period last year. Excessive speed is the direct cause of one in three accidents, but it is also an aggravating factor in others: If someone is hurt in the accident, the injuries will be worse when higher speeds are involved.

“We deliberately opted for a more confrontational campaign” explains BIVV director of communications Kris Verbeeck. “Tests following our previous campaign showed that when it’s about speed, tougher campaigns work better.”

BIVV’s last campaign earlier this year saw drivers who had gone over the speed limit as witnesses at their own funerals. Now, instead of contemplating their own mortality, drivers are being asked to consider innocent victims of their behaviour.

People have a too positive view of speeding, the BIVV finds, whereas if the average speed on the roads were to come down by just one kilometre per hour, the number of fatalities would fall by 3.5% to 6%.

The video can be seen on YouTube and on the campaign website www.waaromreedjezosnel.be. Laura’s image is on 650 billboards along routes across the country. 

Photo courtesy BIVV