THINK! Things you shouldn't get between

A road safety PSA to make you wince and – hopefully if you’re a cyclist – think.

Part of AMV BBDO and the Department of Transport’s ongoing THINK! project, which aims to tackle a range of dangerous road safety behaviours, this imaginative spot hopes to reduce the number of cyclists killed by HGV lorries at junctions and launches today on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Directed by Tom Haines out of Bold, the film leads with an amusing parade of things you don’t want to get caught between – a grand piano and the pavement, two heavyweight boxers, a crazed kid and a piñata, a slab of meat and the descending cleaver of a butcher. The final dark twist is a cyclist getting between a lorry and a left turn with shocking results.

Using a mixture of stock footage, animation created by The Mill, and live-action shot by David Procter, it’s snappily edited by Daniel Sherwen at Final Cut to the strains of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and some alarming sound design by Sam Ashwell of 750mph.

One out of every three collisions between cyclists and lorries take place at left turns, making it a dangerous area for cyclists. Two versions of the film will circulate online: one in which the cyclist gets crushed and another which resolves in him doing the correct behaviour of hanging back.