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To date, 650 schools have formed part of the Scholar Patrol Improvement Project
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 10 June 2015 – IMPERIAL Road Safety today announced the addition of the 650th school to join its IMPERIAL Scholar Patrol Improvement Project at Craighall Primary School in Craighall Park.
Aimed at educating teachers and scholars around the basics of road safety, the project looks to reinstate scholar patrol in schools and to train learners and teachers around best practice when it comes to road usage. This is of particular relevance if we consider research (Injury Mortality Survey, 2009*) that 2,247 children under the age of five died of non-natural causes and of these, 741 children died from road traffic deaths.
Mark Lamberti, CEO of the IMPERIAL Group who attended the commemorative day had this to say: “IMPERIAL is privileged to play a part in educating young learners about road safety. South Africa’s road accident rate is among the highest in the world and we see the education of children on road safety an important contributor to reducing this. The awareness of road safety brought about by the exposure to scholar patrol at an early age can only benefit our older road users and we remain committed to this educational process.”
Niki Cronje, Group Marketing at IMPERIAL, who has lead the Scholar Patrol Improvement Project for the past three years adds: “The project is an initiative that is close to my heart, as I too have children who use the roads every day, and it is vital for me to ensure that the project makes a difference to their safety and every single community it reaches. Today I am thrilled that we – through the help of Active Education – have managed to reach a milestone of 650 schools in such a short space of time.”
“This project, through IMPERIAL Road Safety, started in October 2012 and set a goal of reaching 20 schools a month. “Marking our 650th Scholar Patrol Improvement Project at Craighall Primary is as exciting, as it is rewarding. To date we have taught 561 000learners, trained 2 600 teachers and reached numerous different communities within South Africa. In addition to this, we have painted 16.5 kilometres of zebra crossings, erected 1 300 stop signs and 1 300 ‘Scholar patrol ahead’ signs, as well as handed over 3 900 bibs.”
Road Safety campaigns such as the Scholar Patrol Improvement Project are a welcomed addition to our roads and while they may seem small – they are greatly needed and appreciated as even small changes in behaviour taught to one child can help to decrease fatalities for both pedestrians and drivers on our roads.
Lamberti adds: “As one of the biggest road users and a leader in mobility, IMPERIAL remains committed to road safety in every respect. With over half a million learners having participated in our Scholar Patrol project we continue to educate the communities in which we operate, to increase awareness of road safety and empower people to become change agents as pedestrians and ultimately as drivers on our roads.”
Cronje concludes: “As we celebrate the 650th school reached, we would like to assure all communities that we remain focused on increasing our footprint even further and bringing real road safety change to South African children – creating safer roads and fewer fatalities”.
