SpeedKills Campaign Ends Today

18 Mar 2011

MEDIA RELEASE: 18 March, 2011

The Victorian Mallee township of SpeedKills will be renamed back to Speed today following one of the most successful road safety campaigns ever run by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC).

The Rename Speed Campaign, launched on 14 January, called on Victorians to support the town of Speed's mission to reduce rural road trauma and raise awareness of the dangers of speeding on country roads.

The town promised that if 10,000 people 'liked' their idea on Facebook, they would change their name to SpeedKills for one month. The month of SpeedKills started on 18 February.

That target was reached within 24 hours and within one week 20,000 'likes' had been recorded.

The current total stands at 34, 511 and includes supporters from Spain, Israel and the United States.

Local farmer from SpeedKills, Phil Down, has also changed his name to Phil 'Slow' Down for the past month in support of the campaign.

In addition to the overwhelming support on Facebook, the campaign has attracted significant local, national and international media attention.

A film crew from Japanese television visited SpeedKills yesterday and will profile the campaign on air next month.

The TAC donated $20,000 to the Speed Lions Club to express their gratitude for the town's involvement in and commitment to the campaign.

TAC Head of Community Relations, Phil Reed, said the most important aspect of the campaign was that it has helped change attitudes.

"Our road toll is down 13 per cent on last year's and thanks to the people of SpeedKills, many people are more aware of how dangerous it is to exceed the speed limit," Mr Reed said.

More than a quarter of all of the campaign's online supporters have been males aged 13 to 35.

"Renaming Speed has created a unique way for us to engage with young people who are more at risk of death on our roads and more likely to speed."

The campaign kicked off the TAC's 2011 focus to make speeding socially unacceptable.

"The signs might be removed today, but the SpeedKills message will be entrenched in many people's heads for a long time.

"Changing people's attitudes to speeding and ultimately changing their driver behaviour is a huge challenge, but we're up for it and we're confident we together can create change."

For more information contact the TAC's Sarah Henderson on 0429 294 262.