Road safety scheme uses near naked lollipop men and women in a bid to cut road deaths
A novel scheme to promote road safety using near naked lollipop men and women, is being tested, .
The campaign aims to target young adults who are less likely to pay attention when crossing roads while drunk.
A video has been created by Road Safety Analysis, which features male and female models brandishing the traditional lollipop sign as they help drunk pedestrians across the road.
The initiative comes following research that shows that 50% of drunk revellers fail to use a zebra crossing at night. It's thought that 'sexing up' the lollipop men and women might encourage more people to use a zebra crossing.
As part of the campaign, nearly 400 pedestrians were secretly filmed crossing Cowley Road, an area which has many bars and is popular with students.
It can be very hard to connect with young adults, especially if they have been drinking, but what we have clearly demonstrated here is that their behaviour can be influenced if we can find the right means.
When the sexy patrol was not there, more than 40% did not use the crossing, but that figure fell to 8% when the models were ushering pedestrians across at the zebra.
New figures show that one in eight pedestrians killed, or seriously injured by cars, were drunk, with the number of adults being killed or injured crossing roads is rising.
Richard Owen, operations director for safer roads, said that there is an increase in road accidents during the festive period.
"At this time of year there is always a big focus on drink driving but drunk pedestrians are also a serious concern," he explained.
"Shockingly one in eight pedestrians who are killed or seriously injured on our roads are drunk at the time of the crash."
The experiment designed to encourage people to pay attention to road safety, demonstrated that when the nearly naked lollipop people were assisting revellers to cross the road, 98 per cent of the pedestrians used the zebra crossing correctly.
"It can be very hard to connect with young adults, especially if they have been drinking, but what we have clearly demonstrated here is that their behaviour can be influenced if we can find the right means," said Owen.
The results of the lollipop experiment were captured on video.
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