The BBC reports today that police in Belarus, apparently desperate for bike awareness, staged a crash scene. The mannequin in the photo below is a part of a “road safety campaign,” the BBC cites.
The news source culled this story from Belarus’ Tut.by newspaper. It seems like something out of The Onion, and we are hesitant to post this kind of tertiary-sourced story.
But if true, the Belarusian campaign hits a new height of absurdity in trying to make drivers aware of their two-wheel fellow commuters.
The BBC article is despairing beyond just the premise of this staged crash: According to the article, only nine people stopped to try and help out of 186 cars that drove past the scene.
The campaign itself is called “Don’t Look the Other Way!” The article quotes Grigory Yevgenievich, one of the good Samaritans who did stop to try and help.
“Human life is precious,” Yevgenievich said, noting he would put the victim in his car and drive him to the hospital. “You can always wash your seat covers.”
Read the full story here, including description of the scene, which was made to look like “a hit-and-run, with a mangled cycle and tyre tracks left near the dummy.”
—Stephen Regenold
