Speeding car crashes and reckless driving: Are commercials to blame?

Automakers often display a warning in commercials when showing a car executing incredible stunts: "Professional driver on a closed course.

Automakers often display a warning in commercials when showing a car executing incredible stunts: "Professional driver on a closed course. Please do not attempt."

But with deaths from car crashes rising every year, experts are asking if that kind of boilerplate language, which more or less fades into the background as a vehicle burns rubber on the screen, goes far enough.

Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board called for a study of car advertisements, saying the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) should try to determine if there is a link between commercials that show unsafe driver behavior and real-world speeding or reckless driving.

"Nearly one-third of our roadway deaths are speeding related, and this sort of advertising is dangerous and contributes to a culture of speeding that costs lives," said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy in a statement to NBC News. "Everyone — including vehicle manufacturers — shares in the responsibility for safety on our roads."

If there is such a link, it's going to be hard to prove, according to David Zuby, the chief research officer at IIHS. Still, Zuby said his group will work on ways to examine whether there could be a link between crashes and commercials that show dangerous driving.