19 Feb 2011

Phil Slow Down promotes road safety in town of Speed

3:43 pm on 19 February 2011

Australian farmer Phil Down doesn't mind the chuckles he's likely to get after changing his name to Phil Slow Down as part of a road safety campaign in his home town.

The tiny Victorian rural community of Speed, population 45, has changed its name to SpeedKills for a month in an effort to promote road safety.

Mr Down says he's happy to humiliate himself for the cause.

It's all part of Victorian Transport Accident Commission campaign to lower the rural road death toll, which went up by about 25% last year.

Within 10 hours of the launch of a Facebook page set up to promote the campaign, 10,000 people had joined; another 10,000 joined within five days.

Both the town and Mr Down will revert to their original names at the end of the campaign on 18 March.