A video showing a series of comical texting-while-walking fails with a hard-hitting message has caught the attention of the public.

The footage starts with a montage of clips appearing to be caught on CCTV of people glued to their phones, harmlessly walking into doors, falling down stairs and even tripping into a pond.

The campaign advert, produced by South Africa’s Western Cape Government, soon catches the viewer off guard when it switches to a driving using her mobile from behind the wheel, caught on dashcam.

A montage of clips shows people walking into objects while using their phone

Suddenly she is thrown around in her seat as her vehicle is sent spinning around following a collision.

Broken glass and blood spatter the camera.

The clips appears at first to be a funny series of fails

The hard-hitting video ends with the woman appearing unconscious and asks: “You can’t even text and walk… so why do you text and drive?”

The video has been released at a time the Metropolitan Police is also cracking down on drivers texting behind the wheel.

It soon takes a sudden change in tone

New strict rules have been established as a harsher punishment in order to deter motorists from picking up their phones while using the roads.

More than 100 drivers were pulled up for using mobile phones while driving in west London last week.

The hard-hitting message is aiming to get drivers to stop using their phones

A crackdown by Hammersmith and Fulham Police and Kensington and Chelsea police saw 101 motorists from the two boroughs prosecuted during Mobile Phone Awareness Week.

Previously the police had pulled over a man for using his phone to check emails.

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