NEW DELHI: Toyota Kirloskar Motor [TKM] reiterated its safety crusaders mission by curating a special road safety awareness program for children here in the capital city today.

This initiative in association with Delhi Traffic Police and IL&FS Education and Technology Services Limited, is a part of Toyota Safety Education Program (TSEP) which is aimed at improving the road safety crisis in the country by inculcating safe road behavior in children and youth.

This pan India program strongly advocates the need to start training young and nurture minds to bring out a positive behavioral change eventually towards making Indian roads safer.

Organized at Indian Institute of Technology – Delhi, over 250 school children from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore along with a wide array of stakeholders, including the World Health Organization (WHO), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Delhi Traffic Police, Hospitals, NGOs and others played an active part towards developing responsible road users.

The program also saw a series of educative and interactive sessions like quiz programs, demonstrations and skit competitions which educates on citizen’s rights on the city road and the subject of road safety from the perspectives of the children with an aim to instill such safety routines as their daily habits. This also provides a good platform to outreach the road safety awareness to masses at large.

According to studies, it is alarming to note the road accident statistics where as many as 1.46 lakh people lost their lives in 4.60 lakh road accidents across the country last year, which roughly translates to 400 deaths a day.*

TKM has developed the TSEP module emphasizing on the road safety aspects, while incorporating the feedback received from the schools. Also, this program entirely focuses on sustainability and bringing about an attitudinal change through multiple intervention with different age group based module [to cover Grade 6 to Grade 9]. This module aims to encourage the school children to demonstrate the project based on the learnings of TSEP program.

Commenting on the road safety scenario and Toyota’s role in driving a positive change, Naveen Soni, Vice President – Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “India loses about 3% GDP each year due to road mishaps. Beyond losing valuable lives, the social and economic impact caused by every road accident is sizeable to affect our country’s productivity. At Toyota, SAFETY dominates our mission in the country, and we have been zealously implementing interventions to improve the road safety profile of our country since 2005.

Our focus has not only been on manufacturing safe cars but also to bring in a positive behavioral change in the society on safe road practices. Children are the change agents who can bring desirable transformations in the society. We are strong advocates of the fact that safety messages should be seeded in school curriculum which ultimately will serve as an enabler to drive positive behavioral change. Through initiatives like “Toyota Safety Education Program” we hope to impart invaluable road behavior lessons to youth which will last with them for a lifetime, in turn create a ripple effect in the society. I extend my sincere gratitude to all the participants present here today and let us all pledge to work together to ensure safe road systems for our future generations.”

Speaking on this road safety program collaboration with Toyota, Depender Pathak, IPS – Special Commissioner of Police [Traffic] Delhi, said, “Most of the road accident victims are youths and the ever increasing vehicles population on our roads highlight the urgency and importance for taking up this cause. It is incredibly important to get children up to speed on safety, as they shall be the safety ambassadors and influencers of the society going forward. Today, any effort, big or small, taken towards improving driving habits and arriving at solutions that will make our city roads more safe and secure can go a long way. We appreciate the concerted efforts and leadership taken by Toyota Kirloskar Motor and other representatives at all levels who share the goal of Delhi Traffic Police Department of making safer roads for the next generation.”