CFAO Motors Kenya through the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team (TGR-WRT) has launched an ambitious road safety awareness campaign that seeks to create a safer road environment, especially for school-going children across the country.
This forms part of the team’s support towards promoting road safety during the ongoing WRC Safari Rally.
The campaign dubbed #RoadSafety4All, will see primary schools across Kenya receive 10,000 glowing wristbands to improve their visibility during dark or low visibility times.
The tags emit a reflective glow at night assisting in improving visibility particularly when navigating busy roads.
The initiative was launched at Lang’ata Road Primary School in Nairobi County and Milimani Primary School at the Rally Service Park in Naivasha.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a child is prematurely lost on the roads of this world every four minutes. Many more are seriously injured, causing immense trauma and suffering as well as economic hardships due to the high cost of medical attention.
Many of the victims unfortunately also come from poor backgrounds, which complicates the problem further. Globally, 186,300 children die every year from road traffic crashes.
CFAO Motors Kenya managing director, Arvinder Reel noted that the long-term goal of the initiative is to instill a clear understanding of road safety rules, induce positive and behavioural transformation given that the number of children lost through road traffic injuries has been on a consistent rise in the recent years.
The #RoadSafety4All campaign not only enables road safety learning amongst school-going children, but also empowers them to become advocates of change within their local communities.
This aligns well with the Global UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011- 2030 which calls for countries to improve the management of road safety through the creation of multi-sectorial partnerships to deliver national road safety strategies. “We envision a future where school-going children are not just road users, but responsible ones,” Arvinder said.
NTSA director general, George Njao noted that as the custodian of road discipline in the country, working with partners like CFAO Motors Kenya is a welcome move as it will buttress the agency’s long-term goal of elevating its commitment to make roads safer through the dissemination of best practices and rules.
