A new campaign has been launched with the aim of cutting the number of people killed or injured by drivers using mobile phones.

The Department for Transport’s THINK! has called in the same directors behind Evian’s rollerskating babies advert and the video for Pharrell Williams’ hit song Happy for its latest road safety campaign.

At the centre of the campaign is the concept that if a driver travelling at 30mph glances at their phone for just 2.3 seconds, they miss 100 feet of road – the length of a Boeing 737 – and the minute-long clip uses innovative high-frame rate filming to illustrate this very point.

The video opens with a two-second burst looking towards the pavement and a row of shops before asking ‘did you see the pink kitten?’.

The same clip is replayed at a tenth of the speed allowing the viewer to spot several instances of pink kittens before panning to a driver who is looking at a pink kitten on their smartphone, unknowingly ploughing down a mother and child.

Road safety minister Jesse Norman explained the thinking behind the advert by saying: “This eye-catching advert demonstrates how dangerous looking at your phone for just two seconds can be, and the devastating impact it can have on other road users.”

He added: “We have some of the safest roads in the world, but we are always looking at ways to make them even safer. But the awful truth is that tens of thousands of drivers are still flouting the law and endangering others by using a handheld mobile phone at the wheel.

Watch the video below:

Since March, penalties for using a handheld mobile while driving were doubled to a £200 fine and six penalty points, while new drivers who have passed within the last two years face having their licence revoked if caught just once.

More than 15,000 fines have been issued to drivers using a handheld phone since the new penalties were introduced, the Department for Transport says.

Chief constable Anthony Bangham, National Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead for roads policing, added that police officers are making use of the tougher penalties to clamp down on this dangerous behaviour.

“Driving while distracted by a mobile phone is completely unacceptable and puts everyone on the roads at risk of serious harm,” he went onto say.

“As this campaign makes clear, it only takes a few seconds of distraction to change lives forever.”

Ben Robb, brand manager at The Fuelcard People, concluded by saying: “This advert should serve as a weighty and effective wake-up call to drivers that don’t realise how devastating their neglectful behaviour behind the wheel can be. The clip itself is inline with the innovative and original campaigns we’ve come to expect from THINK!”

Photo: PeopleImages/iStock