Back to FHWA Safety Media page
Transcription
"Red Light!"
"Green light!"
Laughter
Voiceover (:09) - A child's game of red light green light...The rules?... Get from point A to point B as quickly as possible without getting caught.
(:06) It's innocent enough. Aside from a bump or bruise here and there these kids are just having fun.
On Camera: Hi, I’m Michael Thornton. Everyday across this great nation, millions of Americans play this game for real - only its not in the safety of a quiet school yard, and the risks... well they can be much more serious than a few bumps and bruises.
Voiceover (:14) - Its here at our nations many intersections that people from all walks of life come together however briefly to join in a game... of Red light ...green light…left turn –right turn-stop-yield-walk-don’t walk…
(:18) - hmmm well it seems there are quite a few more rules in this game. And there’s also a lot more players. There’s all sorts of people - going all sorts of places by all sorts of means. And, just getting through this game safely is the reward. The penalties however can be far worse than any game we played as a child.
Rudy Umbs - Statistics
"Each year over 41 thousand people will die on our nation's streets and highways, 9000 will die at intersections and 1.5 million people will be injured at intersections. That number is too high, and we have to do something about it and we are doing something about it."
(:08) - That's right - were on a mission to save lives. We need to make intersection traffic even safer...but how?
Richard Retting, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety- Gives statistics on fatalities, injuries, etc. Talks about the solutions.
"Well one of the myths is that nothing can be done that intersection collisions are unavoidable as long as drivers go through intersections and cross each other's path there will be crashes, but there are things that can be done that greatly reduce the risk of intersection collisions these involve engineering solutions, enforcement of traffic law and also changes in driver behavior."
Man on the street interviews-
Businessman skit - red light runner
(DOH!)
Bill Knost- Police Officer
Talks about the role of enforcement
"Well the role of enforcement with intersections as well as regular traffic movement on the roadway is two-fold actually, it starts out as an educational process and when that doesn't work you move into the enforcement aspect where you have to show them that the behavior they're doing is not correct...when the driver approaches the intersection he or she needs to see the same type of function at each intersection that way they're expectation is the same so they're conditioned on what they need to do as well as the pedestrian they need to know exactly what to expect when they approach that intersection."
Old Man Skit- Trying to cross an intersection
(Oh...I give up!)
Scott Wainwright - Role of an engineer in intersection safety
"We as traffic engineers play a very important role in intersection safety both in the new intersections in the new roads that are being designed and in studying existing intersections identifying the safety problems and identifying what the solutions are. Engineers work really hard to make intersections as safe as they possibly can be for the traveling public but we can't do it all the police can't do it all the most important part is the driver and the pedestrian and they've got to act safely, they've got to act responsibly when they're using intersections...they've got to use their heads."
Old Man meets Businessman at intersection
Voiceover (:09) - So its people like you and me, we need to buckle up and pay more attention and we need to look out for each other at all times.
Pam Crenshaw - Distractions - Paying attention
"Just because you're a very safe individual doesn't mean someone else is there's an awful lot of distractions out there at all times there are other people there are other vehicles, there's noise one distraction can be fatal."
Soccer Mom Skit - Distracted mom runs a stop sign.
Deanna Almond - Circle of friends and family
"When there's an accident it's not just the time and the money and insurance things you need to worry about and injuries there's other things behind that there's the family and if there's children and there's those that they're connected to it makes a big circle around every single person it effects everyone in their family and all of their friends."
Justin McNaull - We are responsible for the culture on our roadways.
"Collectively we have a responsibility for the culture on our roadway...it's not about state police or legislators changing things it's about what each one of us does behind the wheel you have to believe a kind deed begets another kind deed so if you let somebody merge in ahead of you that deed should get paid back to you the next time you need to merge into the roadway."
Voiceover (:07) - Its here in the schoolyard that we first learned of the red lights and the green lights that would play such a large role in our lives...
(:05) - and it's also here that we first learned the most important lessons of all...
Like a sense of caution…
A sign of restraint…