Help me save Chilean lives

Dear Editor,

Have you ever been on a car crash? I hope not. I cannot say that I'm thankful for that too because about three years ago I should have died in a car accident, gladly somehow I survived. Do you ever wonder how many people die in our country as a result of car accident? Honestly, I don't have a clue but I know it is a lot. These accidents are taking innocent people lives on a daily basis.

I have seen many ads and campaigns aimed at teenagers and most of them are aimed at people who drink and drive, who talk on the phone, change the radio and many other activities ones does while driving. Recently I saw a new campaign -roadside banners- which are telling people not to text while driving.

As stupid as it might sound, some people do text and drive but we are still either ignoring or letting pass the fact that it is becoming a very dangerous issue in our society and especially for all the other innocent drivers.

I must admit though, that I was stupid enough to text while driving, and I'm not talking about years ago, I mean last week. I told my boyfriend and he asked me not to do that again and showed me a video which had an amazing effect.

I recognize and acknowledge the fact that Las Condes, Vitacura and Lo Barnechea are trying to prevent accidents caused by texting, but I don't think that roadside banners are the option, because that resort is also distracting drivers. A video not only can be seen in a safe place (away from the roads, preventing newer accidents caused by distracted drivers), but it is also a graphic way to show people the direct effects of their actions. It is also a vivid way to explain what are the consequences after the accident, the pros and cons and also it uses a device that we have seen before in some older campaigns -by Clinica Alemana- and that is guilt.

There have been a lot of campaigns similar to this one, but still the effects have been null, there has been a negation of reality. I think that appealing to cruelty, rawness and violent accidents it is a way to touch people. This ad I saw shows a scene with a girl texting while driving, and as a result: a bloody car, all of her friends dead, and two homeless kids on the other car asking mommy and daddy to wake up.

That's why I ask you, have you ever been on a car crash? Have you ever felt the fear of almost killing someone you love? I have. We need, as a country, to apply measures like these, to show people the importance and fragility of life to all of the people who drive. Lives can be taken away in a minute, and it might take a four minute video to prevent that from happening.

I am asking you in this letter to help save Chilean people lives. As a massive media who reaches a big proportion of citizens of this country, help me, you and everybody to save lives. It’s in your hands now to do something about it because I don’t have the influence or the power to make this happen, but you do.

Camila Vera Falabella.