Share the scare this Halloween—it could save a life!
It’s that scary time of year: Halloween. It’s a night for children to dress up in spooky costumes, to transform our homes into haunted houses with tombstones, skeletons and jack-o-lanterns, and for scaring ourselves silly with horror movies. But this October 31
st, Operation Lifesaver is asking Canadians to “share the scare” in the hopes of saving a life—because reality is scarier than any horror film.
OL’s
Look. Listen. Live. campaign uses virtual reality (VR) technology to “scare viewers safe” by giving them the shocking experience of how quickly and quietly a train can sneak up on them. The aim is to get Canadians thinking—and acting—differently around railway crossings, property and trains.
We launched the first two
virtual-reality videos in April 2017. One is filmed from the perspective of a person taking an illegal shortcut across railway tracks, and the other, from the perspective of a driver trying to beat an oncoming train at a crossing. Since its initial launch, OL has produced three other videos: one featuring an ATV driver, another a snowmobiler, and another showing pedestrians acting unsafely at a rail station. All of OL’s VR videos are available on the campaign website and can be viewed with or without a VR headset or cardboard viewer.
Using VR technology to change behaviours
“The goal of the Look. Listen. Live campaign is simple: to shock people into changing the way they act around railway tracks and property,” says Sarah Mayes, National Director of Operation Lifesaver Canada. “Whether it’s playing on railway equipment, using tracks as a shortcut, trying to race a train or even glancing at your cellphone at a crossing, taking risks around tracks and trains can have devastating consequences for you, your loved ones and your community.”
So, this Halloween, don’t be tricked. See for yourself how fast an incident with a train can happen, and help us to spread the word by sharing the videos and using the hashtags #LOOKLISTENLIVE and #SHARETHESCARE.