A distressing car safety advert from Northern Ireland warning drivers of the dangers of speeding has gone viral with nearly a million views in one week, but TV watchdogs have banned its broadcast until after the 9pm watershed.

The advert begins as it it was a lifestyle marketing campaign from a car company or other brand with a happy classroom full of children preparing for a field trip and a young man grabbing breakfast and rushing off to work.

However, the speeding driver loses control of the car and it rolls through a hedge and crushing the class of children who were studying nature outside, highlighting the fact that 28 children have lost their lives as a result of speeding since 2000 in Northern Ireland.

The advert is shocking and aims to be a wake-up call to drivers, as Road safety minister Mark H Durkan said:

“This campaign is a real wake up call. It is a particularly sensitive and compelling message. After all, what could be more thought provoking than the realisation that, since 2000, the equivalent of a classroom of children have been killed as a result of speeding.”

Research shows that those most at risk of causing speed-related deaths are young men, like the man shown in the advert, and those who speed rationalise speeding as a casual factor in a collision rather than blaming their decision to speed on being unable to respond to an unexpected event in time.

Durkan continued:

“Speeding is a result of human behaviour, a choice a driver makes. In a crash, speeding makes everything worse. Combine speed with human error or the unexpected and the consequences will be tragic.”