A NEW shock-tactic video featuring a car crash victim lying in a hospital bed has been released by a group campaigning to cut the number of road deaths in Essex.

Elliot Furniss

A NEW shock-tactic video featuring a car crash victim lying in a hospital bed has been released by a group campaigning to cut the number of road deaths in Essex.

The Essex Casualty Reduction Board (ECRB) is trying to reach a new market by broadcasting its latest Valentine's Day film on popular internet site Youtube.

The site allows people to share their own videos with other users and now the ECRB hopes the strength of its latest message can hit home hard.

Nearly 700 people have already logged-on and watched the clip, which sees a young couple fool around inside a car and profess their love for each other, all recorded as if using mobile phone cameras.

The screen then fades and cuts to the injured girl lying in a hospital bed with the teenage male driver sitting beside her, looking distraught after an apparent accident.

Figures show that teenage girls are more likely to die or be seriously injured when travelling as a passenger rather than a driver, and the ECRB, which is made up of representatives from Essex police, Essex County Council and Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, is looking to change this.

Norman Hume, Essex County Council's head of highways and chairman of the ECRB, said: “Through this hard-hitting campaign we are reminding young people of the terrible dangers and consequences when things go wrong on the road.

“We don't want to spoil the romance of this time of year but we know from experience that this kind of message works and would like to ask young male drivers to take special care of their female passengers - and to point out the particular dangers that young females face as passengers.”

The ECRB team are visiting a number of schools and colleges in the county in the coming weeks and yesterday they were at Braintree College.

Teenagers studying a range of subjects were given the chance to find out what it's like to drive while drunk thanks to a high-tech simulator that recreates the conditions.

Tracey Clark, pastoral tutor for the construction department, said the session had gone really well and had a big impact on many of the college's new drivers.

She said: “They seemed to take it on board. They can see it for themselves and it does hit home. They're all starting to get driving licenses and it gives them an opportunity to learn what can happen to them.”

To see the Don't Hurt the One You Love video, part of the ECRB's For My Girlfriend campaign, visit www.fmg.org.uk.