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War and terrorism was definitely made “more real” on LiveLeak than what you’d experience via the media or YouTube. I also found a real appreciation for other t

• Sebb767 6y ago
  Especially fire safety seems like something people don't realize. Sure, the rules can seem overly strict and sometimes even nonsensical on the first glance, but it's insane how fast the situation can go from "smale flame" to "house on fire". Seeing the worst case play out is really eye-opening.
  • dTal 6y ago
    I don't think it was LiveLeak, but seeing the footage of the Station Nightclub fire online was enough to permanently change how I view crowds and indoor spaces. That stuff is quite scarring - but I'm grateful for the knowledge.
    • stupidcar 6y ago
      Agreed. After seeing that video, any time I'm in a crowded indoor space, I always make sure I take a look around for the nearest fire exit, as well as a couple of alternatives in case it is blocked.
  • leetrout 6y ago
    Test your smoke detectors and change your batteries. Change the entire unit after 10 years.
• argc 6y ago
  I saw someone killed on a lathe on liveleak and ever since that video I've taken tool safety EXTREMELY seriously. Like, I bought safety goggles and wear them for drilling random screws. I never even thought about it before that.
  • webreac 6y ago
    Sometimes, just a story is enough. I read about a father who drove over his child while backing up. He thought his child was under his wife's supervision. Since then, all my cars have the rear view camera.
    • natmaka 6y ago
      In China popular video channels available on popular apps (Wechat...) quite frequently stream accidents (nearly always catched by surveillance video surveillance), mainly traffic accident, sometimes work-related and even domestic violence. The "didactic" tone is quite patent: don't jaywalk, drive and use machinery with care, use adequate protective gear...
      • jazzabeanie 6y ago
        Years ago a lived with someone one who loved to watch videos of people getting hit by cars. I watched a bunch of these by proxy. The thing that still sticks in my mind is that almost none of them were jaywalking. It was almost always a car running a red light. The people that got hit put too much faith in the lights.
        • stanski 6y ago
          So true. Most times when I'm making a right turn and have to wait for a pedestrian to cross, I notice that they never look up. Somehow if you have the right of way, cars are magically supposed to obey that. Better to be in one piece than be right.
        • AJ007 6y ago
          In consistently dangerous intersections it can actually be much safer not to cross at the crosswalk. You are basically in a situation where it is perceived as safe because you expect the cars to stop; however, if they don't stop, you are immediately in trouble with no exit.
• praptak 6y ago
  I remember they used to show bad car crashes as part of the training you could take to reduce the number of penalty points (Polish road code, accumulate 24, lose your driving license). My colleague, who was a bit of a petrolhead, took it. It made him drive safe(r) at least for a few weeks.
  • jobigoud 6y ago
    Here as part of the process to regain your points they made you visit a hospital where car crash patients were treated.
    • praptak 6y ago
      That sounds effective but how do they deal with patients' privacy? Do patients have the option of not being made a showcase?
      • deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      • dmos62 6y ago
        "Do you mind if this bad driver visits you?"
      • orthoxerox 6y ago
        It probably reduced the number of penalty points the patients themselves had.
  • op00to 6y ago
    My American school in the 1990s showed “Signal 30” in Driver’s Education class, a gruesome documentary film from the 60s showing deceased, disfigured victims in automobile accidents. Totally messed up to show kids that.
    • ticviking 6y ago
      I think it is rather more messed up to give teens the power to create such horrors without first making them confront what exactly a car can do.
• CalRobert 6y ago
  It's weird that phrasing the reality of it is considered distasteful. "Child killed in collision with vehicle" is sanitary. "Driver smashes child's brain with their bumper" less so. Yet we might not let drivers get away with killing 40,000 people a year in the US if we spoke clearly about it.
  • putnambr 6y ago
    Road safety advocates have been lobbying journalists to use 'crash not accident' for years. Even here on HN many people shoot that down as anti-motorist. People like their cars/trucks and don't like being reminded of their danger and responsibility.
• tarsinge 6y ago
  Yes I think a few videos is enough. I still have images in my head kind haunting me but like you said it’s a good thing. Same with animal condition (don’t know if you find that here). But more than that I wouldn’t play with the psychological consequences.
• kebman 6y ago
  I remember seeing that video of American special forces being shot down in Africa. I did my due in the army myself, but thankfully I never saw combat. I do know a lot of vets, tho, and... they've all got PTSD and many of them are in a very bad shape. After seeing that video, I've been even more thankful. For me it serves as a clear warning that joining the army isn't all glory, even if you're fighting for "the right side" or the most powerful army in the world. Also if the war is on the other side of the world, perhaps ask yourself if this is something you'd really like to give your life for.
  • tfp137 6y ago
    The "other side of the world" wars are mostly fought by the young, because they haven't developed enough skepticism to ask whether what they're being asked to do benefits the country as a whole, or only certain actors and industries. The old and rich start wars, the young and poor fight them.
    • pasabagi 6y ago
      The old, rich, and stupid. One of the things that has been blowing my mind recently is the awareness of how many wars happen as a result of accident, miscommunication, and institutional inertia. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour started off as a hypothetical 'how could we win a potential war with the US', then over time, gained so much momentum that even though its principal architect thought it was a very bad idea, and although it was obviously not in Japan's national interest, it ended up going ahead.
      • kebman 6y ago
        Wasn't there a whole ordeal with competing entities, even within national organizations and army branches, who were all zealously entrenched in their own little jurisdictions?
        • pasabagi 6y ago
          That too - but that's present in any state. Japan just had the weirdest combination of resting all authority in the emperor, while having a strong tradition of the emperor never exercising any practical authority. So you get stuff like the creation of a puppet state in Manchuria essentially against the will of the Japanese prime minister. I think the basic structure of a leader that theoretically has absolute power, but practically speaking is a kind of empty suit, is actually pretty generalizable and common. Japan is an extreme example, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Iraq war was the result of a similar combination of institutional momentum and leadership vacuum[0].
• nirui 6y ago
  > These “boring” things take on more importance when you can see what happens when you ignore them. Couldn't agree more. When I was a 7 years old, a road near my home was undergo an expansion. The work involves a lots of heavy and big machines, including heavy trucks etc. During that time, me and almost all other kid was warned to not go near those machines, "Don't play near those things, it's dangerous". But none of us knows why, so none of us listened, at least not carefully. Many years later, after I've grow up and start to understand the value of lives, one day I stumble upon a video showing a middle school aged student ridding a bike down a road, and got crashed by a turning lorry. And the lorry driver didn't even notice the student until a terrified security guard yelled him to stop. That kid was crashed at the left abdomen, then the wheel rolled over his chest and head, all with in 3 seconds of time. That moment is when I suddenly remembered the warning that I got almost 20 years ago: Don't play near those things, it's dangerous. Everything is so real now, because it is, it's just that I didn't receive it at it's full meaning back then, and that video, completed it. Video like those really works, because now you saw it with your own eyes. You feel the brutality without a layer of filter, and without even a slight distortion, and then you know it for real.
  • u801e 6y ago
    > Many years later, after I've grow up and start to understand the value of lives, one day I stumble upon a video showing a middle school aged student ridding a bike down a road, and got crashed by a turning lorry Unfortunately, this is a relatively common way for cyclists to die. The easy way to prevent it is to never try to pass a truck/lorry near an intersection.
    • putnambr 6y ago
      Even if there's a car ahead of a lorry at a red light, I'll stick a few feet behind the lorry until I can pass it mid-block. Big truck drivers have so much to pay attention to while city driving, it's easy to forget that cyclists exist.
    • nirui 6y ago
      What most shocking fact it, the driver didn't even notice the poor kid. The blind spot that people constantly talking about is real and many people lose their life to it. Sad thing is, most people I know don't know about anything of it, they still assumes that the driver will take care of everything.
• sizzle 6y ago
  Watching an American beheading by either drug cartels or some random Middle East country properly fucked my head up at the ripe age of 12 or 13. I too experienced the phenomenon of feeling the media was downplaying the extent of the sheer and utter devastation that comes with war and invading countries. That video shook me good and still haunts me to this day… It made me aware of the atrocities of life and wanting to be more involved in politics to make the world a less barbaric place. Anyone else experience this?
  • NortySpock 6y ago
    Not quite as rough as you had it, but growing up with parents in the medical field, they could and would easily recount all the nasty injuries and deaths they had seen in accidents (or homicides). Suffice to say I am firmly in favor of wearing safety equipment even for "simple" jobs, and trying to avoid pissing people off.
  • frosted-flakes 6y ago
    Not from liveleak, but a couple of years ago I read an article about a guy that got stuck in a cave a few km from the entrance after falling head-first into a crevice, and eventually died because nobody could get him out. It gave me nightmares for weeks, and even to this day just thinking about it makes me shudder. It's almost PTSD, even though I only read a second-hand retelling.
    • ssully 6y ago
      Last year I was leaving my house to walk my dogs when my neighbors dog jumped their fence and attacked my dog. I had airpods in, so I didn't hear anything until my dog literally screamed. I was able to turn around and hold my dog steady until my neighbor hopped his fence and got his dog off. Overall it could have been much worse; I have friends that have much worse stories. My dog had a handful of puncture wounds that healed up, and he is fine now. I am pretty sure I had PTSD or something close to it; mainly it's waking from nightmares of the scenario, and thinking of my dogs scream still makes me shudder/feel sick. I also now walk outside and check my yard before letting the dogs out and stay out there with them the entire time. My neighbor is working on getting a fence now that the spring is here, but even then I don't know if I will leave the dogs out alone. It was a minor encounter with violence, but it was enough to shake me up and change some habits.