Maurice Blackburn Lawyers are at it again with their SMIDSY campaign!
The Australian legal firm which seems to have the interest of riders at heart has launched a new ad highlighting SMIDSY. That stands for “Sorry mate, I Didn’t See You” and it represents a vast majority of accidents involving motorcycle riders.
The law firm has previously supported lane filtering and a SMIDSY campaign with video ads and has now backed it up with this “mockumentary” ad.
http://youtu.be/B5rTIODzzC8
The latest ad shows world leaders at the G20 meeting – very timely indeed! – wearing helmets and calling for improved safety for motorcycle riders by getting more riders on the roads.
This mockumentary news report has an important safety message behind it.
Australian National University research has found that the reason for SMIDSY could be because motorcycles are less common on the roads than other vehicles.
The Canberra uni has conducted research with 40 adults using simulators and found that participants who were shown more motorcycles in a simulation saw them sooner than those shown a small number of bikes. The fact that motorcycles are less common than cars might make it harder for car drivers to see motorcycles, says researcher Vanessa Beanland.
Participants who saw motorcycles more often were able to detect them an average of 50m farther away than those who saw motorcycles less often. At 60km/h drivers would have an extra three seconds to respond. So the solution to SMIDSY crashes is to have more motorcycles on the road, not fewer.
The SMIDSY video ad is part of the Maurice Blackburn Lawyers “Stop SMIDSY” campaign and was produced by Gozer Studios.