Three cheers to Crossroads, the 51% black-owned value chain logistics organisation, on its initiative in taking the Road Freight Association’s (RFA) ‘Safety For All’ campaign to Sophakama Primary School in Du Noon, Milnerton, to teach Grade 0 and Grade 1 learners about road safety.
“Safety For All was launched in 2014 and Crossroads has heartily backed this campaign because of the benefits to so many communities affected across South Africa,” says Arend du Preez, managing director of Crossroads.
“We have many drivers on the roads every day and particularly in the area around Du Noon. It is of the utmost importance that children are made aware of road safety and know how to keep themselves safe when crossing roads, particularly in disadvantaged areas where many kids walk home from school without adults since their parents are at work.
“It’s a situation that places the children at risk and makes it more important for us to focus our education efforts there. Having the Captain Safety mascot and other fun teaching aids helps to make the event enjoyable for the kids,” Du Preez added.
And let’s not forget the side-benefits of all this to truck and car drivers who get hugely traumatised when a pedestrian is hit. Every single day a pedestrian is killed or injured on the roads when hit by either a car or a truck. It is a horrible experience for any driver.
On Tuesday night, for example, a pedestrian was killed when he was knocked over by a car on the R21 near the Atlas turnoff in Kempton Park. The day after, another pedestrian was left in a critical condition after being hit by a vehicle on Atterbury Road in Pretoria and early the next day, yet another pedestrian was critically injured after being hit by a vehicle on Malibongwe Road in Renosterspruit.
It goes on and on and it is widely recognised that taking the road safety message to schools is the right way to go so as to inculcate best practice methods at an early age. With this in mind, the RFA’s Captain Safety project aims to teach learners how to stay safe on the roads.
The second phase of the programme kicked off in 2015 by introducing the Road Safety curriculum through training manuals and other teaching aids. These aids included mats painted with roads, houses, and street signs for children to play on using toy cars.
The curriculum contains 11 modules delivered by trained educators. Captain Safety, a special RFA mascot, also attended the day’s activities at Sophakama Primary School.
FleetWatch lifts its hats both to the RFA and to Crossroads on what they are doing with this initiative in the road safety arena. It is estimated that 40% of the deaths on our roads are pedestrians. It is also widely recognised that taking the road safety message to schools is the right way to go so as to inculcate best practice methods at an early age.
Seeing members of the trucking industry making a difference in saving lives in the wider communities is just so wonderful. It’s all the right stuff. Well done to Crossroads and the RFA!
