Minister of the Interior Jäger: No WhatsApp message, no phone call is worth a human life

The Ministry of the Interior and Local Government announces:

Because Jonas is typing a message while driving, his journey ends at the tree. Just like the protagonist of a short film made by the Mittelkreis comprehensive school in the district of Kleve, many people underestimate the danger of looking at their smartphone at the wheel. "No WhatsApp message, no phone call is worth a human life," said Interior Minister Ralf Jäger at the premiere: "The two films get this message across in a powerful way."

In the second film, Anna has a serious accident because she is on the phone with her mother at the wheel. The audience experiences the horror together with her as she fears for her daughter's life. "The films deal authentically with the victim's perspective and get under your skin," praised Jäger. The pupils were supported in the filming by the Kleve district police and the Goch fire department. They wrote the scripts themselves.

For the victims of serious road accidents and their relatives and friends, nothing is ever the same again. "This is exactly what the films raise awareness of in a moving way. They are therefore important contributions to road accident prevention," emphasized the minister.

The NRW police caught more than 65,000 cell phone offenders in the first half of 2016, which is 20 percent more than in the same period last year. In 110 of these cases, the use of smartphones led to an accident.