KiwiRail gets on its high horse

This fun spot with a serious message was created by Federation/Auckland for KiwiRail/TrackSAFE and introduces an enigmatic horseman with a message. 

In a film directed by Calvin Sang, through Ears and Eyes, Steely Stan urges drivers approaching rail level crossings to take a good hard look for trains employing a special left-and-right 'steely stare'. 

Part of this year's Rail Safety Week, it follows a year in which there were 305 near misses and 40 vehicles or people collided with trains across the national rail network – resulting in ten people losing their lives. 

“Collisions with trains are unforgiving,” says KiwiRail Chief Executive Peter Reidy, “the average freight train weighs well over 1,000 tonnes and cannot swerve to avoid a person or vehicle, or stop quickly. Our locomotive engineers can blow the horn and put on the emergency brakes, but there is often little else they can do.”