A new app in Russia shows road accidents from the past in augmented reality

When it comes to road safety we are used to seeing TV adverts that aim to shock drivers into taking more care on the roads but a new campaign in the Russian capital of Moscow is using a clever smartphone app as an alternative channel to improve road safety. The idea behind the app is even though there are hundreds of accidents every single day of the week on the very roads we travel, we very rarely see these accidents and by the time we are driving past the scene of an accident the debris and any bodies have long been cleaned up.

The app uses location aware technology as well as augmented reality so you can quickly view any local accidents that have happened in the area before you have been there. You can see photos, videos and full information about how the accident happened. People think the roads they travel every single day are safe but a quick look through the app and drivers will see plenty of mishaps on the very road they are now driving on. It’s a very smart idea and as you can see from the picture above the agency behind the app found lots of creative ways of getting users to download it. The QR code bodies were spread around the city encouraging users to download the app and there was also a web based version for those who didn’t have smart phones. The campaign case study doesn’t share any stats on success but it’s interesting to see road safety campaigns move away from TV and on to smart phones and with any luck it will have saved some lives…