Taking transport month to the youth

The Volvo Trucks “Stop, Look, Wave” initiative is now in its third year of activity in South Africa and, since regaining momentum this June, has reached 9 300 children nationally.

On October 19, Volvo Group Southern Africa will head to the Levleesky school in Florida, Gauteng, with the goal of reaching 10 000 children by the end of the year. The training material has been specially developed to facilitate dialogues with the children in a fun and interactive manner, through various song and dance activities.

“The initiative was successfully reinvigorated with the help of staff from our truck centres and head office staff that went to local schools in their areas and trained the learners.

“We also offer the training material as a free download on our website and would like to encourage parents and community leaders to help us empower the nation’s children and help save their lives,” says Valentia Hobbs, marketing director at Volvo Trucks Southern Africa.

Volvo quotes the South African Journal of Science, which says that pedestrians are among the most vulnerable road users. An estimated 40 percent of road deaths in South Africa last year were pedestrian deaths, 16,3 percent of the pedestrians killed in vehicle accidents were children (younger than ten years) and 20,8 percent were children aged 14 years or younger.

“Too many of these accidents involve heavy commercial vehicles. Children are, unfortunately, the most vulnerable road users and need to be empowered through road-safety education initiatives.

“To this end, Volvo Trucks is working on various road safety initiatives and developing innovative safety features for our products with the goal of making roads safer for all road users,” says Marcus Hörberg, vice president, Volvo Group Southern Africa.