This one minute clip shows several of the tiny toon characters jumping into a fire truck to get to a school which is going up in flames. This short driving clip shows lots of reckless and dangerous driving without any care of others around them.
Description of Bad Driving:
Speeding to their destination.
Driving fast on curvy roads, bumpy hills, and public roadways.
The driver took sharp U-turns without slowing down, letting the back of the fire truck to go off the road and hit things on the sidewalks.
Weaving in and out of cars on busy public highways.
Stopping at a halt flying one of the cartoon characters out of the fire truck and smashing him into a brick wall.
Influence Others?:
This is another cartoon that can have a slight impact on children. This portrays being a fireman is an easy and fun job. They are able to drive the way they want to and nobody will get hurt. The editors for this clip makes this job and the skills for this job fun and enjoyable, when in reality it is a very difficult and dangerous job. Many people get hurt during these moments and driving a huge fire truck takes lots and lots of skills-which is not portrayed here.
Influence Me?:
I must admit these cartoons are cute and enjoyable, but I do know the differences between fact and fiction. I used to watch these shows a lot when my brother was a little younger and I did notice that he got extremly excited when it came to these exciting but dangerous scenes. I remember asking him one time why he liked these shows and he replied with, "Because they're funny and no matter what they do to themselves nobody gets hurt." I then noticed he immitated many of the driving and crashing scenes with his toy cars. At the time I didn't recognize these actions as dangerous, I just thought that was a natural thing for little boys to do. Now he is reaching the driving age and I really worry about him sometimes, I have this feeling that he doesn't understand the skills involved and thinks driving is a "piece of cake". I just hope my parents, my sister and I set good enough examples to override the bad examples shown on TV.
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