Red Asphalt
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Red Asphalt is a series of instructional driver's education videos produced by the California Highway Patrol. The films are known for their graphic depictions of fatal car accidents. Horrendously injured and dismembered bodies are shown in the documentary, typically those of negligent drivers. Five volumes in the series have been produced, and some are still shown at some high schools and private driving schools.
The film has been criticized for its poor acting and being a "joyless ride" of gruesome images and statistics; the paper also called Red Asphalt "the Reefer Madness of driving: Forget trying to reason with teenagers, just scare 'em." And despite the film series' faults, they remain a "strange and enduring rite of passage," that have probably achieved their goals of reminding young drivers to slow down.
Installments
- 1964 Red Asphalt
- 1978 Red Asphalt II
- 1989 Red Asphalt III
- 1998 Red Asphalt IV
- 2006 Red Asphalt V
