Amtrak safety video receives two awards

Written by jrood

An Amtrak video depicting the importance of railroad safety has been recognized by two independent awards programs for creative excellence. The film, Cheating Death, received two Silver Communicator Awards from The International Academy of Visual Arts and two Bronze Telly Awards in the categories of Public Safety and Video Editing. The film, designed to warn teen drivers of the dangers and consequences of failing to obey highway-rail grade-crossing signals was developed in response to several grade-crossing deaths of teenagers in Lakeland, Fla. It is produced in a style that captures the attention of a younger audience by incorporating fast paced editing techniques, music, re-enactments, actual news footage and natural sound to deliver the key messaging. The film includes interviews with police, medical professionals and family members of teenagers who died as a result of not obeying crossing signals. At 12 minutes in length, the film is a grim reminder of the importance of railroad safety. Cheating Death will be used as a training tool both internally for Amtrak personnel and externally for state driver's education associations, school groups, civic organizations and transit agencies. In addition, more than 1,100 copies of the film have been distributed to Operation Lifesaver, a national organization dedicated to preventing railroad-related deaths and injuries. The Telly Awards are judged by a panel of more than 500 industry leaders and this year's winners were selected from a pool of nearly 11,000 entries. The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring the best in advertising, corporate communications, public relations and identity work for print, video, interactive audio. Cheating Death was produced by the Amtrak Police Department, Donnabrant Productions and DogHouse Media.

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