Ford South Africa recently partnered with the ChildSafe Pedestrian Safety Programme to launch a Global Road Safety Week, in association with the Eastern Cape Department of Transport.
Aimed at reinforcing Child-Safe’s efforts to create safer environments for child pedestrians around school zones, change road user behaviour and raise community-wide awareness regarding pedestrian safety, the launch, under the theme, ‘Streets for Life’, took place at Masakhane Primary School in Kwazakhele, Gqeberha.
The ChildSafe Pedestrian Safety Programme was recently awarded a R750 000 grant from the Ford Motor Company Fund to support its child road safety campaign. It aims at benefiting 15 000 school children, 5 000 parents and 150 teachers, and is currently focused on six schools in Gqeberha near Ford’s Struandale Engine Plant, as well as a further six schools in Mamelodi, near Ford’s Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria.
ChildSafe executive director, Yolande Baker, said approximately 11 million children walked to school every day in South Africa, and 64% of all child road deaths are pedestrians.
“Children are very vulnerable on the way to school, due to their small height and underdeveloped cognitive abilities, combined with the lack of safe walking areas, speeding drivers and drivers not looking out for pedestrians,” Baker said.
“It is fantastic to have Ford on board as a partner for ChildSafe, which has helped us initiate our Walk This Way project, which is a holistic, multilevel intervention that addresses road user behaviour, along with improving the road environment for children of schools in high-risk areas,” Baker added.
The project conducts a road safety assessment of the immediate school environment to consider what traffic calming measures need to be put in place.
This is done in conjunction with local government, as well as the relevant school and community bodies.
Teachers are trained to adapt and implement ChildSafe’s locally developed road safety materials for classroom-based education, so children learn to be more aware and responsible pedestrians.
Plant manager at Ford’s Struandale engine plant, Shawn Govender, said that South Africa had among the world’s worst statistics for road accidents, injuries and fatalities.
“Pedestrians are most at risk, especially in poor communities where there is a lack of proper road infrastructure. Creating safer pedestrian zones, including sidewalks and pedestrian crossings, is an important step towards addressing this national crisis,” Govender said.
He, however, noted that these measures alone would not solve the problem unless a significant culture change took place among motorists and pedestrians regarding road safety and awareness.
“This needs to be complemented by effective law enforcement to ensure that the rules of the road are adhered to, and reckless endangerment of other drivers and pedestrians is addressed and becomes socially unacceptable,” Govender added.
