India CSR Network
HYDERABAD: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), in line with its deep rooted safety mission ‘Safest Car, Safest Driver’ today inaugurated a two day Driver Training Program and Health Check-up Camp for airport taxi drivers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad.
This initiative was undertaken with the objective to engage and educate airport taxi drivers on the traffic safety challenges and the critical importance of making Indian roads more safer with a more responsible and sensible safety behavior. The event was successfully organized with whole hearted support from Apollo Hospital and Essilor Foundation to offer free health and eye checkup for Airport taxi drivers.
Inaugurated by eminent dignitaries like K Prasad, ACP-Traffic, the event also had the presence of Ramkumar, CEO, Radha Krishna Toyota, Y B Swamy, Senior GM Harsha Toyota and Rajendre Hegde, GM, CSR, Toyota Kirloskar Motor.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor aims to sensitize driver’s common errors while driving and educating them about the importance of road safety and their role to keeping roads safe. The integrated initiative also offered a “Health Check-up Camp” that focused on the wellbeing of taxi drivers who offer their services, day and night. The free check-up camp offered tests like BMI, RBS, ECG, General medicine, BP, eye screening with issuance of free spectacles, blood grouping and physician consultant.
According to recent analysis by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), over 1, 46, 000 people lose lives on due to road mishaps, in India. About 1,374 accidents and 400 deaths take place every day on Indian roads. Drivers’ negligence has been revealed as the single most responsible factor for road accidents, accounted for 77.1 per cent of total road accidents during 2015.
Speaking on the occasion, SGK Kishore, CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL) said, “We would like to thank Toyota Kirloskar Motor for organizing the road safety awareness programme for the taxi drivers operating out of Hyderabad Airport. We appreciate their efforts in fostering a safe traffic environment by sensitizing taxi drivers about their health and providing training to them on right safety behavior. As an airport operator concerned about the safety of passengers and visitors, we also organize road safety awareness programme for the benefits of taxi drivers on a regular basis. Such programmes definitely instill confidence and good traffic behavior among the drivers and contribute towards a safe traffic environment.”
Shekar Viswanathan, Vice Chairman & Whole-Time Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, “As safety crusaders in the automobile industry, we feel it is our responsibility to ensure the safest cars with the safest drivers.We sincerely acknowledge the dedicated support from GMR and Apollo Hospital & Essilor foundation, in our successful endeavor in undertaking this initiative. Health and Safety are two major concerns which are often neglected in the automobile industry especially taxi drivers. Taxi drivers are exposed to lot of health problems as a direct result of erratic working hours, stress, poor posture, lack of proper diet, bad weather, pollution and most important being lack of adequate sleep. We have been consistently conducting Driver Training Programs and Health Check-up Camps to educate taxi drivers on safe driving practices and improve their physical wellbeing. Taxis are an integral part of public transport system carrying millions of passengers every year. With this initiative we aim at inculcating a strong safety culture in drivers and effectively reduce road accidents on Indian roads’’
TKM has been conducting similar Driver Training Programs in the Bangalore International Airport and Delhi International Airport since 2014 as part of the CSR Initiatives on road safety awareness with over 3000 drivers participating in the campaign. 700 drivers were diagnosed with vision problems during these health checkups and provided free spectacles by TKM.
