A road safety video made by Transition Year students about the dangers of distracted driving has gone viral.
It follows recent criticisms of a new road safety campaign branded 'ablelist' by a TD.
Students from Coláiste Mhuire decided to make their own video which has amassed over 600,000 views since it was posted.
The students came up with ideas for ads and they chose one thought up by Ethan Coll and developed it further.
They also approached Westmeath County Council which provided funding for the project.
COLÁISTE MHUIRE ROAD SAFETY AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
We, in Coláiste Mhuire Mullingar are highly aware of the frightening statistics at present in relation to road deaths in Ireland and we want to make a difference.@GardaTraffic @westmeathcoco @westmeathtopic @WHExaminer pic.twitter.com/79ZiGMEp32
— CBS Mullingar (@CbsMullingar) September 5, 2024
Ethan told Lunchtime Live they wanted to tackle an issue close to home.
"I wanted to put the emphasis on young lads because we're all at the age now where we're learning to drive so I thought mobile phones was probably our biggest [issue]," he said.
"It's definitely my Dad's biggest issue - [he's] worrying about when I'm starting to drive now about texting everyone, Snapchat and TikTok - everyone's distracted by it.
"I wanted to put forward the idea of the pedestrian and the driver and just show the dangers from both sides".
Mr Coll said he was pleasantly surprised by how it tuned out.
"I'm actually the student in the ad that is walking home from school and it was worrying enough," he said.
"We were shooting the scenes of walking in front of the lorry and it was scary to me how people can get that distracted by their phone.
"I was coming up with ideas of what it would look like in my head but I never thought it would be that good in the final stage.
"I remember watching it in the end and it was just class - I didn't expect it to be that good," he added.
Since 2019, people aged between 16 and 25 represent about 20% of all road deaths despite making up just 12% of the population.
