10 Car Crash Survivors Posing For A Shocking Photo Project Aimed To Raise Awareness About Seatbelt Safety

Recently, to raise awareness about the importance of wearing a seatbelt, the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) teamed up with special effects make-up company PROFX and created a chilling photo series showing car crash survivors proudly posing with their injuries after the accidents. NZTA say that as much as 90 people die each year from injuries that could have been easily prevented by wearing a seatbelt. Most of the victims are young men from rural areas.

Liam Bethell

Image credits: ourproductionteam

Kahutia Foster

Image credits: ourproductionteam

Dr. Natasha McKay, an emergency medical specialist who helped out with the project said that seatbelts actually leave these kinds of marks after accidents. “They will save your life, but they will leave you a mark to show how they’ve done it,” said the doctor.

Dion Perry

Image credits: ourproductionteam

Billboards showing the gruesome photos have been appearing all over the country and the organizers hope that the stories shared by survivors will stress the positive impact of wearing a seatbelt living to tell the tale.

Dan Mason

Image credits: ourproductionteam

With the help of communications company Clemenger BBDO, NZTA want to change the attitudes of those who think a seatbelt is merely an inconvenient accessory rather that a life-saving necessity. In an interview with Designboom, Rachel Prince, a spokesperson for Clemenger BBDO, said that they’re selling an undesirable product to these guys: “Research told us they think seatbelt messages are for kids, for the elderly, for everyone else. We worked with them to make the undesirable something they wanted to buy.”

Rick Haira

Image credits: ourproductionteam

Dylan Chirnside

Image credits: ourproductionteam

Willy Carberry crashed his car back in 2014. It hit a power pole and flipped onto the side – he only survived because he was wearing a seatbelt.

Willy Carberry

Image credits: ourproductionteam

“F***ing put a seatbelt on,” said Willy after the accident. “It doesn’t matter how short the trip is. You never know who’s going to come out of the intersection and t-bone ya, or reverse out of a driveway, or an old lady going down the road, having a stroke,” said the man in an interview with stuff.co.nz.

James Mcdonald

Image credits: ourproductionteam

“If you don’t wear it, you’re gambling with your life, if you ask me.”

Will Giles

Image credits: ourproductionteam

James Liberona-Feek

Image credits: ourproductionteam

Check out the survivors’ stories in the videos below

Image credits: NZTransportAgency

Image credits: NZTransportAgency

Image credits: NZTransportAgency

Image credits: NZTransportAgency

People on the internet had their own stories to share