An Australian town has changed its name to Speedkills to promote safer driving.
After figures revealed that deaths on rural roads increased by 25 per cent countrywide in 2010, the town formerly known as Speed is going by the unusual new name for a month, in return for a donation to a local charity.
Since the proposal was hatched in the Melbourne town - which has a population of 45 - over 30,000 people have shown their support.
Local sheep farmer Phil Down has even gone the extra mile by changing his name for the month too - to Phil Slow Down.
"Most people recognise that drink driving is a socially unacceptable activity, they are less convinced about the merits of speed," Phil Reed, head of community relations at the Transport Accident Commission, told Reuters.
"Our underpinning business objective here is to make the issue of speeding (as) socially unacceptable as drink driving."
In an effort to broaden its message, the tiny town took its message to television and social networking sites such as Facebook, saying that the name change would go through if it got 10,000 supporters - a number hit within 24 hours.
It currently has nearly 34,000 supporters.
"We want people to slow down on country roads and drive safely," TAC spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said.
The number of road deaths in the year from Feb 2010 to Jan 2011 was 1329, a fall of 11.5 percent from the previous year, according to the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.
The final Curious © phrase:
“Scientists tell us that the fastest animal on earth, with a top speed of 120 feet per second, is a cow that has been dropped out of a helicopter”
(Dave Barry)
