The Australian leg of the global Volvo child pedestrian safety campaign has been launched at the Melbourne Truck Show.

The company’s global safety director, Carl Johan Almqvist, was in attendence to run the launch.

The initiative is an important one given that around 260,000 children are predicted to lose their lives on the world’s roads this year alone – a shocking and alarming statistic revealed by the truck manufacturer.

Volvo predicts that around 10 million children will be injured this year on the road and hopefully their global campaign will put a dent in that staggeringly high figure.

Although the campaign is a global one, Volvo Australia has highlighted that an expected boom in the number of trucks on our roads could present a risk to kids. More than half a million trucks are already registered and the road freight task forecasts is expected to double by 2030.

Mr Almqvist explained,

“Very few children are afraid of traffic,” 

“It’s especially difficult for truck drivers to see quick-moving little people which is why we’re rolling out this free education campaign to teach Aussie kids to Stop on the side of the road, Look both ways, and Wave at the truck driver before they cross,” he says.

“We don’t want children to be afraid of trucks but their attention is limited, so we need to teach them this simple tip for crossing safely.”

Source: http://www.ownerdriver.com.au/industry-news/1605/volvo-launches-truck-safety-campaign-for-kids/

The campaign “Stop, Look, Wave” classroom safety is targeted at children aged 6 to 10, encouraging them to wave at truck drivers to let them know they have seen them. Drivers are requested to wave back so that the child knows for sure that the driver has seen them.

At the launch at the Truck Show, Year 1 students from Melbourne’s Glen Iris Primary School were on hand to do a demonstration of how the system works.

A customer of Volvo, Toxfree partnered with the truck manufacturer on the campaign. Toxfree is a large national waste management company joining with Volvo to put the program in place.

As part of the program, trucks will be visiting schools across the country and giving students a look at the view from behind the truck’s steering wheel.

Jason Dixon, from Toxfree said more than 700 of their drivers will be educated to wave back to children. He went on to explain:

“Thousands of waste and recycling trucks are on the streets every day and a lot of them are out in the morning when children are heading to school,” 

Source: http://www.ownerdriver.com.au/industry-news/1605/volvo-launches-truck-safety-campaign-for-kids/

Download the campaign kits from the Volvo website to join in on this critically important campaign.