THE TOWN OF SPEED in Australia will take the unusual step of renaming itself SpeedKills in an effort to reduce road accidents in rural areas of the country.

Speed is an outback town in the rural part of the state Victoria in southeast Australia with a population of just 45 people.

It will change its name to SpeedKills for the month of March in an effort to reduce road accidents and increase awareness of road safety, according to Reuters.

Phil Reed from the Australia’s Transport Accident Commission told Reuters:

Our underpinning business objective here is to make the issue of speeding (as) socially unacceptable as drink driving.

The BBC reports that one resident will even change his name as part of the campaign. Phil Down, a local farmer, will now be known as Phil Slow Down.

The town set up a Facebook group saying that the change would happen if it got 10,000 members which it did very quickly. Membership currently stands at over 34,000 members.

The TAC even produced a campaign video in order to gain support:

The BBC reports that one resident will even change his name as part of the campaign.

Phil Down, a local sheep farmer, will now be known as Phil Slow Down.