Volvo Trucks Malaysia Aims To Spread Road Safety Message Among Children

Not every child has the privilege of being chauffeured to his/her school’s doorstep, some actually do make it to school and home on their own, and Volvo Trucks Malaysia wants children to know about road safety. It’s not just about the kids who have to cross roads to get to school, it can also be about your child who has gone to his friend’s house to play and they decide to run out to the playground on their own.

Volvo Trucks Malaysia has been collaborating with KidZania Kuala Lumpur to bring road safety education to schools in Malaysia, following a partnership through ”KidZania Go!” – a KidZania mobile school outreach
program. The partnership is in line with Volvo Trucks’ global safety campaign, ‘Stop, Look, Wave’, which aims to create awareness on road safety.

Volvo Truck’s safety campaign is tailored towards raising children’s awareness on road safety with the use of specially developed training kits. This campaign also includes interactive training and user material for children, parents, educators, youth, group leaders, police officers as well as people who work closely with children. In Malaysia, Volvo Trucks targets to spread this awareness on road safety to more than 21,000 students nationwide.

“Regular road users often do not understand nor have experienced a truck driver’s visual perimeter, thus sometimes pointing fingers at them when accidents happen. We believe that safety education should start with our young generation by teaching them how to stop, look and wave to get the driver’s attention and avoid an accident. Which is why we are pleased to partner with KidZania on their KidZania Go! programme that will bring this important education to schools and their students,” said Mats Nilsson, Managing Director of Volvo Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

“Our safety campaign targets primary school students , as we aim to instill in them early awareness and hope that they will be able to understand, learn and apply proper road etiquettes in their daily lives,” added Nilsson.

Volvo Trucks had also taken part programs organized by state Education Departments like the education carnival held at Tesco Extra in Jenjarom, Selangor, where Volvo Trucks brought in its road safety exhibition truck to give both students and public the opportunity to learn more on how to ensure their safety while on
the roads.

Volvo Trucks delivered the message on road safety to the students in 2 fun and interactive sessions. The first session saw groups of students sitting in Volvo’s exhibition truck and being given a briefing and presentation on road safety tips. The next session then included simulations of actual road conditions such as identifying and understanding blind spots of trucks, what to do when faced with large trucks on the road, and children getting a chance to experience a different view by sitting in the driver’s seat during the blind spot identifying process.

“By giving the young students the rare opportunity to sit inside a truck, we are hoping that it will make a bigger impact on their road safety awareness and knowledge,” continued Nilsson.

“Safety is one of Volvo’s highly important core values which has acted as a guiding principle in our work. It is embedded in our DNA, culture and brand heritage. It motivates us to keep developing products that enhance safety, through continuous investment of time and resources that are channelled into studying the causes and consequences that affect safety,” said Nilsson.

Volvo Trucks hopes to extend its road safety awareness message to another 80 schools with the continuation of this partnership for 2018.