TV ban on road death message

THE TV advertisement at the heart of a new campaign against speeding motorists is so harrowing that it has been banned from being shown before the 9pm watershed for material unsuitable for children's viewing, writes Christian Wolmar.

The advert, launched yesterday by the Department of Transport as part of a pounds 1.5m campaign on the theme 'Speed kills. Kill your speed', features a 16-year-old girl killed by a speeding motorist. Her ghost berates the young man driving the car while he mumbles he was not going too fast.

Uisdean Maclean, the head of advertising clearance at the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre, said: 'We thought it was wholly inappropriate for children and in any case it is aimed at drivers.'

Road deaths have fallen each year since 1989, but the high proportion of pedestrians among the victims is worrying ministers, anxious to reduce accident casualties by one- third from 1987 to 2000.