Summary and Analysis of “Distracted Driving” Video

Ælfhild Wiklund

    The “Distracted Driving” video, by the Childrens' Hospital London Health Sciences Center, trauma program, is a youtube video about the effects of the momentary distraction of Joshua Lewis Field on himself and his associates. An illfated grab for his cell phone cost him his life. He was a comic person and his loss was a great blow to all who knew him. In the video his associates seek to prevent others from repeating his mistake.

    The video uses a variety of emotional appeals: melancholy background music, the sorrow drenched voices of those who knew him, first hand anecdotes, tears. The anecdotes appealed to ethos by building our image of the victim (who also happened to be the perpetrator) and the labels on each speaker established their credibility: mother, friend, doctor. The harsh reality of his death, the numbers 1991-2009, all appeal to logic, we don't want that to be us after all. Some of the anecdotes appealed to our emotions in a more abstract manner, such as impromptu parties at work, which made clear just how much people would miss him. Others could almost be seen as a logical appeal, fragments of home videos and the fact that he was going into the video industry when he got older, but didn't make it; we can recognize that if we made his mistake our plans could be cut short, linking very directly to the logical appeal of, I don't want to die.