February 2005

Huge number affected by crashes and bereavement

29 of the people who complained about the recent For my girlfriend Valentine card campaign stated that they had recently been directly affected by a road crash resulting in death or serious injury of a loved one.

The campaign features an apparently normal Valentine card - but inside the message is from a young driver to his deceased loved one. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill you, I was driving too fast," the message reads.

Around 300,000 of the Valentine cards were distributed across various parts of England. The majority of cards went out through schools, sixth forms, colleges, universities, nightclubs and pubs - but 50,000 were mailed direct to people's homes by the London Safety Camera Partnership.

These directly mailed cards proved highly controversial and produced a flurry of email complaints from parents and young people in the London area, and considerable media coverage.

"I've received around 120 emails about the cards that were mailed to individuals in the London area, many of whom were upset and/or angry about receiving the card," says campaign manager Nick Rawlings.

"I read and replied to every email (except one , which was too offensive) and was shocked to find that 29 of the people who wrote to us claimed to be directly affected by this issue - they had either lost a close friend or relative in a recent road crash, or had been involved in a crash themselves. This goes to show just how big this issue is.

"We are very sorry that the card has upset and offended some people," Nick Rawlings concludes. "But the campaign definitely has impact and makes young people think about the potentially terrible consequences of driving to fast. If the campaign helps save just one life - and makes some young drivers slow down - then we ask people to set aside their personal dislike of it."

For a round up of recent campaign activity around the country, click here.