Ads too shocking for TV

Two new road safety advertisements which are to be screened in the Republic and Northern Ireland are so harrowing they cannot be shown before the 9.00pm watershed, boadcasting authorities have said.

The advertisements, sponsored by AXA Insurance and promoted in the Republic by the National Safety Council, and in Northern Ireland by the Department of Environment are the latest in a series of hard-hitting advertisements to be screened on TV.

The advertisements focus on the vulnerability of pedestrians, especialliy children in a road accident scenario. Some 150 pedestrians are killed on the roads every year and National Safety Council chairman Eddie Shaw, said both pedestrians and motorists needed to wake up to the reality that they had a personal obligation to ensure their own safety and that of others when using the roads.

Mr Shaw said that if the advertisements were combined with a continuous high level of enforcement of the penalty points system there would be a change of behaviour. This would ultimately lead to a reduction in deaths.