Volvo Trucks recently launched a global programme – See and Be Seen – aimed at creating road safety awareness for cyclists. The launch took place in Hin Hua High School, Klang where the event was held as part of the school's 70th anniversary celebrations. The Malaysian leg of the programme was launched during a scouting skills competition & campfire event where 800 scouts from all over Malaysia took part.
During the event, Volvo Trucks demonstrated various examples of road safety situations through various indoor and outdoor activities made with cyclists in mind. These included presentations with interactive stories and simulations of actual road conditions such as identifying and understanding blindspots of trucks and what to do when faced with large trucks on the road. Now the scouts that participated will be even more prepared than before in terms of road safety.
According to Mats Nilsson, Managing Director, Volvo Malaysia, most road accidents are due to human factors such as lack of attention, poor understanding and misjudgement. Through the See and Be Seen programme demonstrations, Volvo Trucks hope that cyclists will be able to learn more about the blind spots of a truck driver and how to maintain safety for themselves at all times while on the road.
Aside from the many scouts from all around Malaysia, there were also 15 or so students and lecturers from INTI College. The college is a volunteering partner of Volvo Malaysia’s corporate social responsibility projects so they also attended the event.
See and Be Seen is Volvo Truck's second road safety programme that is currently ongoing here in Malaysia. The other one is the Stop, Look, Wave programme, which is conducted in partnership with KidZania Kuala Lumpur, To date, this other programme has delivered road safety messages and created higher awareness with 17,717 children from 153 primary schools and thousands of people at 10 public events. As a result of the success of Stop, Look Wave, Volvo Trucks has decided to kickstart See and Be Seen which has cyclists in mind.
Road Safety CSR Programmes like the two mentioned above are beneficial to our society. Children and also cyclists (who a lot of them are children) need to be educated on road safety especially on how they behave around large vehicles like trucks and buses. These vehicles have larger blind spots than the usual passenger cars. They also have larger turning circles which cyclists, motorists and even cars must take into account. Many a time we've seen or heard those that try to cut the lane when a truck is about to turn get into an accident by doing so.
So a big pat on the back for Volvo Trucks in coming up with another road safety programme for Malaysian (children) to benefit. We hope there will be more to come from this European trucking company.
PRESS RELEASE
Volvo Trucks Launches ‘See and Be Seen’ Road Safety Programme For Cyclists
Shah Alam, 4 January 2018 – Volvo Trucks Malaysia recently launched another important road safety programme called See and Be Seen which focuses on awareness in traffic for cyclists, through activities that demonstrate how to improve safety in the interaction between them and truck drivers.
The programme was launched and introduced to a gathering of around 800 active scouts from schools in all over Malaysia who had attended a scouting skills competition and campfire held at Hin Hua High School in Klang, as part of its 70th year anniversary activities. Around 15 students and lecturers from INTI College, a volunteering partner of Volvo Malaysia’s corporate social responsibility projects also attended the event.
Mats Nilsson, Managing Director, Volvo Malaysia said, “See and Be Seen is the second road safety programme that we are currently running in Malaysia. Our other road safety programme,Stop, Look, Wave, which we have been rolling out in partnership with KidZania Kuala Lumpur, has delivered road safety messages and created higher awareness with 17,717 children from 153 primary schools and thousands of people at 10 public events. As a result of the success of this programme, Volvo has decided to kickstart See and Be Seen as well, this time with the primary objective to bring road safety message to cyclists.”
Tuan Noor Hashim Bin Ismail, Selangor Scout Deputy Chief State Commissioner who attended the launch event shared his delight in partnering with Volvo Trucks for the first time to bring road safety message to scouts. He also commended the company for running this community effort and expressed his interest to continue this partnership with Volvo and to bring See and Be Seen to state-level scout associations.
“Most accidents are due to human factors such as lack of attention, poor understanding and misjudgement. Through See and Be Seen programme demonstrations, we hope that cyclists will be able to learn more about the blind spots of a truck driver and how to maintain safety for themselves at all times while on the road,” added Nilsson.
During the event, Volvo Trucks delivered the message on road safety via various indoor and outdoor activities which included presentations with interactive stories and simulations of actual road conditions such as identifying and understanding blindspots of trucks and what to do when faced with large trucks on the road.
In order to make the simulation as real as possible, the participants were asked to walk around a stationary Volvo truck to observe the different spots where bicycles were placed near to it. Following this, they were required to climb and enter the driver’s seat of the truck, to discover first-hand the driver’s view of the road, his surroundings and blind spots. Volvo Trucks’ facilitators who were on-site then conducted further explanation to the participants on how to stay safe.
Soh Shao Qi, Scout Master for Hin Hua High School commented, “We really appreciate Volvo Trucks’ presence and commitment to deliver road safety message to all the scouts and teachers. I hope we will have an opportunity to organise this invaluable See and Be Seen session again for the benefit of Hin Hua High School’s more than 3,300 students.”
“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 zero accident goal, culture and brand heritage. It motivates us to keep developing products and community projects that enhance safety for all” said Nilsson.
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