Billboards in San Fran Post Real Photos of People on Cell Phones

UPDATE: it is a civilian who spent personal income on these billboards! He wants to rise awareness of the dangers of texting while driving.

Blown away by how many people use their cell phones on the freeway, San Francisco graphic designer Brian Singer came up with a new way to raise awareness of the risky behavior.

Singer recently started the website Texting While In Traffic, where he’s been collecting photos of distracted drivers (Singer assured Gizmodo that the photos were taken by passengers, not drivers). He’s now blown up some of the images for display on 11 billboards throughout San Francisco. The hope is that the photos will freak people out enough that they’ll stop.

While it’s not entirely clear that every driver pictured was actually texting, the situations all look precarious nonetheless.