With the objective to sensitise and train citizens for safe driving, The First Strikers, The #SafeSpeedChallengers takes on a unique National Championship, a 24X7 Live-On-Camera #SafeDriving Rally, challenging all Indians to take on their own #SafeSpeedChallenge, defeating 3.5 lakh potholes and road risks on any road across the country.
Millions of Indians travel on roads and 415 never come back home, every day. Even during the lockdown period from April to June last year, there were 20,732 road deaths on Indian roads, 29% more than deaths due to COVID-19 until June’20. Road deaths are the biggest cause of unnatural deaths in our country. There are many reasons for these deaths, but one sure solution and improvement possible is by transforming public traffic sense, encouraging good road behaviour through a Citizens’ Movement. Bad road behaviour, lack of empathy for other road users, missing safe driving practices and inadequate driving training & skills, are causing accidents, stress and loss of productivity to all road users, hurting daily commuters and impacting every Indian citizen, going against the spirit of ‘Ease of Living’ vision of our Prime Minister.
Believing in “Sadak Suraksha – Jeevan Raksha”, Drive Smart Drive Safe NGO, along with FICCI, SIAM and many other like-minded organisations, has launched an Innovative & Participative Mass Campaign on Road Safety, titled #SafeSpeedChallenge in a format of National Road Safety Championship Challenge. The campaign started from 18th January, during the 1st ever Road Safety Month announced by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH).
The All-Women Teams from Amritsar is demonstrating Convoy Driving style on #TrafficDistancing format to maintain the Safe Speed & Safe Distance between the vehicles and act as a “Role-Model” for all Road Users, all through their drive to Kanyakumari via Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Vadodara, Mumbai, Goa, Mangalore, Kozhikode / Calicut & Trivandrum. The rally is LIVE with speed and location tracking and is streaming from an on-drive camera for all members of Team Challengers. There is a LIVE score / leaderboard with continuous video streaming from on-drive cameras for all women challengers for public voting and has kick-started public debate around safe driving and safety hazards like potholes and humps on the highways.
The objective of the campaign is to start a sustainable chain of nationwide activities, which will not only make people aware and transform their behaviour on roads, but will also lead to alerting and assisting drivers directly on road, saving many lives directly and training them silently while participating in a National championship.
The theme of the campaign is ‘Speed Management’, as it is one of the most critical life-saving interventions identified during the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety and on the top of the Stockholm Declaration’s 12-point agenda under the pillar of Safe Road Users to achieve reduction of road traffic deaths and injuries by 50% before 2030.
The rally reached its final destination Kanyakumari on 29th January after travelling 3,500 km across the country demonstrating safe speed and safe distance throughout their journey. The convoy was welcomed in Kanyakumari by Baskaran, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kanyakumari District, Chandrasekar, Regional Transport Officer – Nagercoil District, and Ramachandra Puttanna, Vice President, Aftermarket & Fleet Solutions, ZF Commercial Vehicle Control Systems, India. The closing ceremony was held at a location near Gandhi Mandapam. The Female Challengers shared their experience of taking up the challenge, inspiring more people to be part of this campaign.
The rally is motivating citizens to join the National Championship across the country as a popular game to learn speed management themselves, through a mobile app voice alerts. Those interested can 1) Download ‘India Against Road Crash’ app to participate or register for the challenge on www.indiaagainstroadcrash.org, 2) Take the 8-point road safety pledge 3) Receive instant participation certificate and challenge their friends & family by tagging them on social media 4) Drive safely during Road Safety month; using the app to slow down when alerted for any safety hazard and 5) Score #SafespeedMiles in kilometers to win the championship, take the trophy home and make your family and organisation proud!
Top organisations also have a ‘Leaderboard’ visibility separately, other than Individuals on grabbing attention for the top slot at www.indiaagainstroadcrash.org. The app users have free access to 3.5 lakh AI-generated #Road Risk Voice Alerts and optional personalized driving score. Self-monitored users are also contributing their #SafeSpeedMiles by posting / uploading pictures of their odometer at the start and end of the Road Safety month.
The goal to raise awareness and training on safe driving to youth, professionals / working class and commercial drivers, through a safety championship will reach a mass adoption, with an ambitious target to collectively score 1 #BillionSafeMiles being set.
Rama Shankar Pandey, MD, Hella India Lighting and President – CWC, Drive Smart-Drive Safe, said: “With safe roads and safe vehicles, we may save millions of lives on Indian roads, but not without safety loving citizens. With public participating and making it a National priority to ‘Arrest Alarming Road Deaths’, we will definitely save lives, #JabHumBadlengeTohDeshBadlega, let’s #BeTheChange and transform our traffic sense, join #SafeSpeedChallenge and spread the word, as none of us wants to be among those 415 lives which are lost every day on Indian roads.”
Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI, said: “We are glad to be associated with the NGO Drive Smart Drive Safe, SIAM and other stakeholders on this innovative mass campaign during the Ministry’s 1st ever Road Safety Month. This campaign is one-of-its-kind as it focuses on Safe Driving Behaviour by Trusting Road Users, Incentivizing and Recognizing them for good behaviour, assist and alarm them on roads. The theme “speed management” is enticing and thrilling and we look forward to the youth of the country to participate in the challenge and earn more and more #safemiles by using the App.”
Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM, shared: “Even though India has made substantial progress when it comes to safer mobility, and vehicles today are equipped with advanced safety features, incidences of road fatalities continue to remain unabated. As per NCRB, in India, 4,37,396 road accidents were recorded in 2019, resulting in the death of 1,54,732 people and injuries to another 4,39,262. To contain these alarming statistics, an awareness campaign needs to be spread around with people’s active participation to highlight the dangers of over-speeding, importance of keeping safe distances with other vehicles plying on the road, putting in place the right infrastructure and proper maintenance of roads – removal of pot-holes and poorly constructed roads. SIAM, as a responsible association of automobile manufacturers, has always been working towards promoting safer and sustainable mobility and will continue to put in concerted efforts along with all stakeholders to alleviate this crippling problem. This year, SIAM is happy to partner in executing the SAFE SPEED CHALLENGE campaign with the aim to bring awareness among our fellow citizens.”
P. Kaniappan, Managing Director, WABCO India, said: “ZF has a vision for Next Generation Mobility built on the principals of Zero Accidents, Zero Emissions. ZF WABCO as an industry leader in innovating commercial vehicle safety technology in India has been championing the drive for road safety by adapting advanced active safety technologies specifically for our local market. Over the years, road safety has also been one of the key pillars of our CSR outreach program, with particular emphasis on CV driver training and upskilling in our industry. We are honored to be a partner to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in this cause and welcome this opportunity to contribute to its vision and drive for zero road accidents in India.”
The campaign has Mahindra & Mahindra as the Principal Sponsor and ZF WABCO and Hella India Lighting as Associate Sponsors. The campaign is also supported by NSCI, ASDC, FADA, ACMA, IGCC, AITWA & AIMA on a collaborative platform #IndiaAgainstRoadCrash which is built together with many like-minded organisations to collectively fight deaths on Indian roads, through awareness, trainings and self-enforcement, across Organisational ecosystem. Over 500 organisations are expected to join the campaign from different parts of the country.