There has been another horrific Indy 500 crash during practice at the Indianapolis Speedway, making it two incidents in two weeks.
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Indy 500 driver Helio Castroneves found himself upside down and airborne after losing control of his race car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during practice.
It really is quite amazing how safe top-tier open-wheel motorsport is these days. Back in the sixties, seventies and eighties motorsport was one of the most dangerous sports in the world and drivers were constantly being killed in massive accidents – as James Hunt once said of his Hesketh F1 car, ‘to all intensive purposes this thing’s a bomb on wheels’. It was incredibly dangerous – sure they had roll-over protection so they didn’t span their necks should things go south, but there was highly flammable fuel sloshing around either side of the cockpit and the chassises were no where near as strong as the carbon fibre ones we have today.
To see just how safe a current Indy car is take a look at the video below. Helio Castroneves lost control of his racer on the banking at Indianapolis during practice and the rear of the car slammed into the wall at what was probably around 180mph, the car spun backwards but what happened next was really rather spectacular. The car took off and became airborne and flew around 30 meters down the track backwards. Eventually the car hit the track and righted itself, but the lack of damage to the car and its driver are truly remarkable. The front and rear wings were torn off during the impact and one of the front wheels snapped off, but otherwise it looks to be in decent shape. And Helio Castroneves walked away with nothing but a slightly hurt ego we suspect. Despite the incident, he returned to the track later in the practice session and the fifteenth fastest lap time! Amazing.
Check out the video below.
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That’s a good thing.
When it comes to PSAs, there are, broadly speaking, three approaches that advertisers can take:
1. Rational. These clips use plain, Atticus Finch-style English to explain why smoking or drugs or bullying is bad. Only problem is, PSAs are usually limited to 30 seconds, maybe 60. That’s not much time to make a compelling argument with dry facts, figures, and admonishments. Classic example: Pee Wee Herman’s PSA about crack cocaine. (Yes, it happened.)
2. Encouraging. These are rare, living in a kind of no-man’s land between intellectual clips and their emotional opposites. They’re meant to make you feel good about yourself and your ability to so something, like quitting smoking. There aren’t many spectacular examples of encouraging PSAs, but this one from the Boston Alliance for Community Health is typical.
3. Emotional. Given the brevity of PSAs, advertisers do best when they can make a lasting emotional impact. Using fear or sadness or humor, they make users feel by using stories and images. There are so many classic examples of PSAs that rely solely on emotion, it’s hard to cite just one, but for those of a certain age, the “Crying Indian” anti-pollution spots will bring back memories. (For slightly younger readers, try “This Is Your Brain On Drugs“.)
We’ve seen plenty of PSAs for distracted driving. Oprah produced asoft-sell clip on the subject, while folks across the pond went for blood and guts and gritty realness. In 2012, Volkswagen published a great PSA aimed at women who put on makeup behind the wheel, and it used surprise as a selling point.
Working with the Tombras Group, NHTSA followed VW’s lead with this month’s ad, embedded above. It doesn’t try to persuade with statistics or pie charts, it simply shows viewers the sudden, grisly results of texting and driving. To us, it’s pretty memorable.
Bonus: if you missed this PSA from New Zealand about driving safely, be sure to give it a look. It still ranks at the top of our list.
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Now here’s something you don’t see every day folks…
Shocked bystanders gasped as they watched a dramatic car crash resulting in a 2,000lb Toyota Corolla LIFTED off the ground by torrents of gushing water.
The car crashed into a fire hydrant sending a geyser of water soaring high up into the air, causing a scene straight out of a action movie.
The Toyota was reported stolen from the San Diego area – no doubt the owners will be in for a shock when they find track down they’re geyser lifted car.
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