Motorists are warned in a new anti-speeding television advertisement that a "serial killer" lurks inside them. The National Safety Council says its "hard-hitting" campaign is aimed at reducing the number of deaths caused by excessive speed.
Speeding ranks ahead of drunken driving as the most frequent contributory factor in road accidents, according to the council, which introduced its campaign yesterday.
More than 320 people were killed in road accidents over the nine-month period to the end of last month. In 1996, 453 people died in road accidents and 10,469 were injured. The cost of road accidents in 1996 has been calculated at more than £600 million.
The advertisement targets male drivers aged from 25 to 34 who are involved in more accidents resulting in death and injury than any other group.
However, the council's information officer, Mr Gavin Freeman, said the campaign's message applied to all drivers.
He said: "We are trying to make excessive speed unacceptable in the same way that drunken driving has been made unacceptable. A safe speed is not just keeping within a speed limit, it's driving in a way which suits the road conditions, the weather and the traffic."
Speaking at the advertisement's launch, the council's chairman, Mr Cartan Finegan, said research showed that motorists who drove at excessive speeds "tend not to acknowledge that they are personally the cause of serious accidents". The campaign's purpose was to change this attitude.
The Deputy Garda Commissioner, Mr Patrick Moran, said the campaign supported the Operation Lifesaver initiative and was an important part of a multi-agency approach to road safety.
Mr Mike Kemp, of the Irish Insurance Federation, which funds the council's road safety advertisements, said the campaign would reinforce the message that speeding was "never acceptable in any circumstances".
The advertisement features a press conference with journalists frantically questioning a detective about a serial killer on the loose. The detective describes the suspect as an "everyday guy" in his early 30s who is "good with the kids, loves his wife, works hard and eats muesli".
His problem, he says, is "overconfidence. He takes risks he shouldn't take and then blames others."
The journalist are then shown a video of a typical suspect being clinically observed as he slides behind the wheel of a new car. The final freeze shot is a close-up of the man's face with a menacing expression. The text reads: "Speeding - only you can stop the serial killer inside".
The advertisement, created by the Belfast-based advertising agency, McCann Erickson, will run for between 18 and 24 months on RTE 1 and Network 2.