Automobile Association (AA) of Kenya has embarked on a pedestrian visibility campaign to promote road safety by distributing reflective sashes targeting over 20,000 school children across the 47 counties.
This is part of a global campaign by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, known as the FIA, which AA Kenya is a member of, dubbed I See You. This campaign that runs till December 2021 seeks to raise motorists’ awareness about pedestrians’ visibility on the road.
“At AA Kenya, we aim to create a safe motoring space in the country for both motorists and pedestrians. In partnership with FIA, we seek to raise awareness on pedestrian visibility by distributing reflective sashes to school children.
We also go the extra mile of educating children on road safety, how to travel to school, how to cross the roads and we train teachers and bus drivers too to be able to impact even more school-going children across the country,” said AA Kenya CEO Francis Theuri during a distribution exercise at Lakewood Premier School in Utawala.
Africa has the highest rate of road traffic deaths with 40% concerning pedestrians and with more than half of all road traffic deaths among vulnerable road users: pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.
In addition, The National Transport and Safety Authority reveals that child and teenage victims of road accidents make up 21 percent of road carnage victims in Kenya.
“Our school-going children are particularly vulnerable at dawn and dusk, or when drivers’ visibility is impaired because of smoke, dust or fog. These reflective sashes will ensure that we reduce the number of children fatalities on the roads by making them more visible to motorists.
To further ensure continuity and spread of the pedestrian visibility message, we shall also be working with road safety champions in each school to ensure this is a sustainable education exercise across the country,” he concluded.
According to the WHO (2021), globally approximately 1.3 million people lose their lives in road traffic crashes each year and 90% of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries. FIA region together with 15 Automobile and mobility clubs are helping raise awareness among the African population through the I See You campaign.
Apart from pedestrian visibility, the campaign also seeks to drive mutual respect between motorists and pedestrians on the road.
