Richmond RCMP is beyond astonished at the public’s reaction to a video regarding road safety awareness that was posted on Friday.
As of Tuesday morning, the video reached about 5.7 million views and was ranked 18 on the global trending list of social media platform X.
Richmond RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Dennis Hwang said he was “shocked” at the influx of comments and reactions from people about the road safety and awareness video that was made for social media.
“What I’m quite shocked (about) is most of the negative comments are not even local, not even based here…they’re mostly from the United States, which I’m not even sure they know where we are located,” said Hwang.
“Fall season is particularly bad for pedestrian safety, and pedestrian awareness and we have the most incidents of pedestrians getting struck in the fall months and that’s why we usually send out some safety tips.”
The video was created by a high school videographer and actors who volunteered their time to help get the safety message out to the public, explained Hwang.
Hwang told the Richmond News the video was not funded by anyone despite a comment to the contrary on social media.
“We received no funding…it was done in-house. Done with volunteers,” he said.
While hundreds of people have criticized the video, other News readers have praised it.
In an email to the News, reader Janet Oakes said the video posted by the Richmond RCMP was “bang on correct and very well done.”
Oakes said she frequently sees pedestrians not using crosswalks in the city and also even sees both “drivers and pedestrians on their phones, oblivious to their surroundings.”
“Thanks, Richmond RCMP for the focus on safety for all.”
While Hwang recognizes people may have their own interpretations of the video, the overall message is for everyone to stay safe and make it home every day.
“You have to think about the overall message. Everybody’s got to act safely and do things to safeguard themselves. That is the point of the video,” he said.
“We are not blaming anyone in the video… from the many many investigations we’ve done. The sole purpose is to let everybody be a bit safer. At the end of the day, we want everyone to go home.
“Our video stands and we stand by it. Many of the commenters do not even know where Richmond, B.C. is let alone what our traffic conditions are like."
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