Dayna Kemp­son Video Controversy

This past sum­mer, 23-Year-old Dayna Kemp­son lost con­trol of her car and was killed in the crash. Later, the par­ents are con­fronted with a graphic video taken by a fire­fighter at the scene of the crash. The inves­ti­ga­tion is ongo­ing. We know that any­thing we say can­not change how her loved ones feel, but for what it is worth, our con­do­lences go out to her friends and family.

Her par­ents, who have every right to be angry, would like to see a law enacted to ban first respon­ders from car­ry­ing cell phones to pre­vent them from tak­ing pic­tures and/or video.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

• Do you believe pic­tures and videos like this have value in pre­vent­ing things like dis­tracted dri­ving, dri­ving under the influ­ence, drowsy dri­ving, etc…?

• Does the shock value play an impor­tant role in a soci­ety that takes dri­ving for granted? IOW, do we need to “see it to believe it”?

• Do you believe that it is impor­tant for peo­ple who are visual learn­ers to be con­fronted with graphic pic­tures and videos to get them to under­stand that:

• Most teen fatal crashes occur at night.




• Using a cell phone while dri­ving makes you 4 x more likely to be in a crash.




• Being awake for 18 hours is equiv­a­lent to hav­ing a blood alco­hol level of 0.08, which is legally drunk.




• Two-thirds of teens killed in crashes were not wear­ing seatbelts.




• 1/3 of all teen fatal crashes involve speeding.




• By car­ry­ing just one pas­sen­ger the risk for a crash increases by 50 per­cent. With three or more pas­sen­gers, the risk is nearly four times greater than while dri­ving alone.




• Almost half of all traf­fic fatal­i­ties involv­ing 16 to 24 year olds are alcohol-related.




• Using a cell phone when dri­ving is AS dan­ger­ous as dri­ving intoxicated.




• Six out of 10 dri­vers, aged 16–20, who were killed in crashes in the U.S. were not wear­ing seatbelts.

an exam­ple of using graphic con­tent as a tool for prevention

is the UGot­Brains “too true sto­ries” page.