The Estevan Police Service (EPS) has launched a new campaign that warns against the dangers of texting and driving.
Police Chief Paul Ladouceur revealed the details of the campaign at Wednesday’s meeting of the Estevan board of police commissioners. At that time, he recognized Estevan Comprehensive School communications department teacher James Dobos and Grade 11 communications media students Joseph Limin and She-Lyn Hamilton, who contributed the graphics and the designs.
The campaign, which has the slogan of Better Left Unread than Someone Dead, will run for the next few months. A number of images, posters and social media posts will drive the message home to those who are still choosing to text and drive.
“With the laws the way they are, where they talk about no texting and driving, and not having your phone in your hand while you’re driving, what we have seen is it causes people … to take the stance that ‘I’m going to still do it, but I just have to be that much more sneaky,’” said Ladouceur.
One of the graphics depicts a child running out into the roadway after a ball, but the driver is looking at a text and not paying attention. The other has a picture of a shattered cellular phone lying on the ground.
“That’s essentially the message that we want to get out there is no text is that important that it puts people’s lives at risk,” said Ladouceur.
Rather than holding their phone at eye level and looking at a text, Ladouceur said some people will hold their phones down on their lap because they don’t want to be seen texting and driving.
“Now their head is completely down, reading a text, while it’s in their lap, paying absolutely zero attention to the road in front of them or their surroundings,” the police chief said.
It’s very concerning from a public safety and policing standpoint.
Const. Braden Lonsberry, the forensic identification officer for the EPS, was approached to assist in developing an ad campaign to emphasize the risks associated with impaired driving. He reached out to Dobos, who then tabbed Limin and Hamilton for the campaign.
“Sometimes it’s nice to involve the schools and the students in developing some of this stuff, and some of these campaigns, and it’s certainly good collaboration with the community and it certainly drives the message home that it’s not just the police sending this message, but students and staff and the schools and the public in general.”
Ladouceur is very pleased with how the campaign turned out, and he hopes to see more initiatives involving student artwork.
“It gives the students a sense of pride in helping out their local police, and certainly it gives us the ability to tap into some of these great young artists who are able to come up with some of this stuff,” said Ladouceur.
Dobos praised Limin and Hamilton for their skill as young graphic designers and using different Adobe Photoshop apps to create the ads that were sent to the EPS.
“I had two students in mind to do it, and they worked efficiently to take the photos for the campaign and edit them together into a really effective ad,” said Dobos.
He is looking forward to seeing the final product for this campaign, and he predicted it will be very effective.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s going to go over in the community, and getting some feedback there, and I think from the feedback we’ve got tonight, I think we can see that the students’ work has been effective, and they’re pretty proud of what they’ve done,” he said at the police board meeting.
The EPS had seen a number of serious collisions due to texting and driving, Ladouceur said, but people still insist on texting and driving.
“Some people are taking a little longer to get the message of just what can happen and how dangerous it can be,” said Ladouceur.
While the EPS has targeted other forms of distracted driving in the past, this particular campaign will focus on texting and driving.
