“Road crash fatality information indicates that approximately 35-40% of road deaths in South Africa are pedestrian deaths. As such, we believe that creating awareness and educating from grass root level around key road safety aspects, and to encourage the youth to become advocates for change in this regard, is the first step in achieving less pedestrian incidents – especially among these young people who are heavily reliant on walking as a method of transport,” says Niki Cronje, group marketing at Imperial.
The Imperial Road Safety Safe Scholars Programme was launched in October 2012 and is sanctioned by The South African Department of Education. To date, the campaign has visited over 960 schools, given road safety talks to 868,741 learners and distributed 45,000 reflective sashes to wear as part of the children’s school uniform in certain regions - as part of Imperial’s commitment to road safety.
“There is no doubt that creating an active, fun learning environment is critical to ensuring a lasting, memorable experience and this is ever more important today where road safety education needs to stick in the minds of those that we deliver it to. As such, through the Safe Scholars campaign and our activation here today, we believe that we are able to do just this – teach the learners key messages around road safety including, buckling up in vehicles, crossing the road and the basics of safe road usage as drivers and pedestrians,” continues Cronje.
As part of this activation, Imperial Road Safety took along their newly launched road safety mascot – Bongie, Buckle-Up-Buddy. Bongie is a fun-loving bush baby who visits schools across the country, as well as attends key Imperial Road Safety activations during busy holiday periods, to educate and actively deliver the message of road safety to children in a fun and exciting way that helps them connect with the message.
“We are so excited to see the enthusiasm of the children at Cavalleria Primary School. They all showed a real interest in learning about safe road practices and in taking this message home with them – not to mention the extreme excitement of having Bongie visit their school. We are very excited that we have been able to make a key contribution in educating our youngest citizens in this area, around important road safety behavioural skills that will carry them through their adult years accordingly,” concludes Cronje.
