ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI - FOX2now.com)—
One of the most watched videos on You Tube right now is not video of someone "caught in the act". It's not even video that will make someone laugh, but it could save a life. It conveys a simple message: buckle up. And the message is told in a way it's never been told before. It is a 90 second public service announcement called "Embrace Life" created in the United Kingdom by the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership.It begins with a father sitting in a chair, acting as if he's driving a car. He starts an imaginary engine, presses down on an imaginary accelerator, and his daughter and wife are on the couch near him, smiling. Then, they see it coming: an imaginary crash. Suddenly fear fills each face.
The trauma nurses at St. Louis Children's Hospital watched the PSA on You Tube, and some were moved to tears.
"Can you imagine? I'm an eight year old in the back seat of the car and I see a car accident happen," says nurse Diana Kraus. "I see the car get hit by another car, and that's the last time I see my dad."
They see, too often, the awful effects of a car crash when a mom, or dad, or child, is not buckled up.
In the PSA, the dad is not belted in until his little girl jumps from the couch on which she's sitting, leaps to his side and reaches around his waist. His wife reaches around his shoulder. They become his seat belt, and his seat belt saves his life.
"This is powerful video," says Kraus.
Like Kraus, veteran O'Fallon, Illinois Police Lieutenant Mark Berry says seatbelts are powerful, too. "You really can't put into words what families go through when a sudden tragedy happens, and then to think the simple use of a seatbelt could have prevented me coming to a door," he says. Berry viewed the video for the first time Tuesday. About 1.7 million people have viewed it in the last month. He hopes everyone who watches it will forward it to someone else.
Kraus agrees. "Think about your seatbelt as a hug from your family. It's really powerful when that little girl comes and hugs her dad, and then the mom hugs him as well. That's really what that seatbelt is."
