Red Asphalt

[Prezbucky]

I was dinking around the YouTube site and crashed into a video titled "Red Asphalt".

It shows graphic images of highway accident scenes -- mangled cars and bodies.

Looking at some of the related videos, I noticed a bunch of comedic attempts at making fun of this grisly video.

Several questions come to mind:

1) Many of the images are nasty and might cause psychological harm to viewers -- not everyone is prepared to see brains splattered on a road, for instance.

2) Given this, does the state have a right to force kids to watch the video? It's important that young drivers be made aware of the dangers inherent in driving, but does this go too far?

3) What do the related videos, which mock the Red Asphalt video, say about teens today?

To see the video as well as those that mock it, simply go to YouTube.com and search for Red Asphalt.

WARNING: The real Red Asphalt video is very graphic and might disturb you if you've got a weak stomach or are otherwise sensitive to such images.
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Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Jamie (K)]

I don't know if the state has the RIGHT to make people watch this video, but when I was 15 years old, in my high school driver education class, we HAD to watch one. It was required by the state. For us it was a movie called "Mechanized Death". Some girls ran out of the room crying, some people threw up, others just sat and watched.

I think videos like this SHOULD be seen by all new drivers. I attribute the increase bad, aggressive driving you see on American roads today partly to the fact that people are not made to see these movies anymore. When I'm about to make a risky or aggressive move, one scene or another from that movie flashes through my head and stops me. Maybe it's the screaming lady who looked like ravioli or the dead teenager lying silently on the highway, but those images moderate my driving quite a lot decades after I saw the movie.

[Prezbucky]

In other words, the benefits (for some, anyway) outweigh the emotional trauma.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Jamie (K)]

[Prezbucky]

Not if you want to sleep. hehe

(I had trouble last night)

I think risk-taking should be based on good sense:

- If there isn't ample room to change lanes, do it anyway
- If someone is clogging the fast lane, ride his bumper until he moves over to let faster traffic through

hehe

Seriously, though -- I bet half of all accidents, at least, are caused by things like a general lack of coordination, inability to anticipate things, fatigue, drinking/drugs and/or simply not paying attention to the task at hand (CELL PHONES).

I speed all the time but have never been in an accident. I've been close once or twice, but thankfully saw them coming and moved out of the way (once someone tried to merge into my lane -- only, I was in it, and he/she nearly broadsided me).

I pay attention to the road while I'm driving -- that likely has a lot to do with why i've never been in one.

(oh, once i tapped someone's bumper at about 2 mph in Chicago rush hour traffic, but i'm not counting that -- he looked at the undamaged bumper and laughed... so i soon followed with my own mirthful chuckling)
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Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[NinaZara]

In Malaysia, we were made to watch accident scenes with ruined cars but never dead bodies. I wouldn't be able to stomach it, but seeing how reckless people can be on the road, I think they should be made watch the videos.

I have never been in a major accident, but when I was a teenager, while my elder sister was driving, she decided to stop after accelerating on a red light. We ended up twirling in the middle of a crossroad. Luckily there were no cars inside the periphery of the crossroad and some managed to stop in time before bumping into us.

I didn't rat on her to our father but I wanted to.

Another one was when she forgot to close the bonnet properly and when she accelerated the bonet flipped back to the window glass. It broke but luckily the broken pieces stayed together and didn't fall on to us. I was carrying my baby sister on the front sit and I only remembered curling to protect her. This time, we couldn't hide it from our parents. We were not punished because our parents were just glad nothing happened to us.

[Prezbucky]

what is a bonnet -- aside from an old-fashioned hat worn by women?
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Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[NinaZara]

It's the hood, Tom.

See number 9.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bonnet

Chiefly British. Sorry, I learnt British English in school.

[Yankee]

[Prezbucky]

When I watch films now, I know that what's happening is not real.

When I was a kid I had a tougher time realizing that, so films like "Friday the XIIIth" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" made me cringe while I watched them and struggle with sleep in the nights that followed.

But that video is real... or is it? Perhaps it also was a product of Hollywood.

hehe
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.