STEVE

Quick Links: Who is Steve? | What killed Steve? | How to save Steve? | How was Steve created?

STEVE - a quirky, lively and poignant animation was developed through discussions at the First Regional Youth Assembly for Road Safety in Oman in February 2011, the resources of the Global Road Safety Partnership and the youth NGO YOURS – Youth for Road Safety under the creative direction of Mark Woodward from Airspace Studios. STEVE gives the viewers a different perspective on road safety by focusing on the hidden danger on the roads. Deaths due to road crash injuries is the number one killer of youth between 15 and 29 years old.

Who is Steve?

Who is Steve? A child or an adult? A pedestrian or a driver? A passenger? Is he from Brazil, Hungary, Egypt or Cambodia? Steve is all of them, he is every one of us. He puts himself at risk everyday whether he is walking to school, driving a truck across the Sahara or scooting along a rice paddy. The road and the transport system that Steve has built help him develop and prosper, but it can also cause great injuries and deaths, and destroy families.

What killed Steve?

Roads, human's greatest conduits for progress and communication, are also the stages for great human tragedy. Someone dies on the road every 30 seconds bringing the annual number of deaths to approximately 1,3 million – or ten aircraft crashes every day. The people dying are likely to be young and previously perfectly healthy - perhaps a bread-winner, a husband, a mother, a daughter or a son. Every year more than 50 million people are injured by road crashes, many of those disabled permanently. Almost half of those who die in road traffic crashes are vulnerable road users - pedestrians, cyclists or motorcyclists.

How to save Steve?

Road deaths are completely preventable. We have the knowledge and the tools at hand to prevent death an serious injuries.

  • Spread the word about Steve. Do not keep Steve to yourself! Steve is you. He is also your sister, your brother, your friend or your neighbour – send the video forward to alert everyone you know. Make your move! Engage the power of social media! Here are some ideas:
    • Start a twitter hash tag "Save Steve!"
    • Join Steve on Facebook
    • Use Steve animation and images in your road safety campaigns
    • Use Steve's graphics for road safety events and conferences
    • Present Steve at Governments forums
    • Present the video to your road safety partners
    • Use in internal and external newsletters
    • Spray adverts on roads and pavements
    • Make adverts in car parks
    • Take posters with Steve and his messages to supermarkets
    • Use in local media – radio, press, TV
    • Send it to influential bloggers/tweeters

How was Steve created?

Mark Woodward, Founder & Creative Director of the Airspace Studio and Anna Wang, a communications expert were given a challenge by the Global Road Safety Partnership to come up with an innovative animation that will appeal particularly to young people. The two spent an afternoon brainstorming with a group of enthusiastic youth from a dozen countries at the 1st Regional Youth Assembly for Road Safety in Muscat, Oman.

The message from the youth was clear – if you want us to spread the message to our friends, this video must be fresh, something we've never seen before. Raising the bar even more, the animation has to be funny. A road safety film that's funny? This was not going to be easy, but Mark was intrigued and Anna remained confident that it could be done.

Upon his return home, Mark began furiously drawing. His office walls were covered with seemingly incomprehensible doodles. There were the usual cars and trucks, but also traffic lights turned into human being, a jungle of buildings, a maze of roads, and even a few sharks.

During several brainstorms, the idea of depicting the invisible danger on the road caught on as a compelling main theme. If people can see this invisible energy surrounding them, they can no longer ignore its power and danger. This was not easy and Andy Pearce, the Chief Executive of the Global Road Safety Partnership chuckled while he said, “I know it's not easy, that's why no one has ever done it before.”

Many more late nights and reams of paper later, Steve was born (in fact, just about a month before Mark's first born Astrid was born).

Steve now has a mission to lift the blind-fold from everyone and make them aware of the hidden dangers on the road so no more lives will be lost.