Safe Drive - Stay Alive Campaign-Youths urged to be ambassadors for safer roads |28 March 2007
Ms Pardiwalla addressing the audience at the launch of the campaign Tuesday
This came out through a presentation for students from various schools around Mahé at the International Conference Centre (ICCS) Tuesday March 27 to officially launch the ‘Safe Drive - Stay Alive’ campaign in Seychelles.
This campaign is a programme initiated by the Thames Valley Police and Emergency services (UK) with the aim of sensitising the public on the importance of road safety and the dangers of negligence on the roads. It is being launched in Seychelles with the collaboration of the Seychelles Police Department and the National Council for Children (NCC).
Besides the youths, those present at the launch of this campaign included some government ministers, members of the judiciary, religious representatives, the Commissioner of Police, Gerard Waye-Hive, the Patron of the NCC Geva René, as well as distinguished guest Mandy Rigault, a Senior Road Safety Officer from the Thames Valley Police.
In a poignant opening speech, the director of the NCC, Ruby Pardiwalla, described the situation on the roads of Seychelles in the last two years as “alarming” and indeed a “cause for concern”.
She noted that in the last two years, Seychelles has witnessed 2,427 reported road accidents, among which 21 were fatal. Moreover, she added, those first few months of 2007 have already witnessed 5 deaths, 2 amongst which were children.
She said that the causes behind such tragedy and trauma are numerous, highlighting among them driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, hand held mobile use while driving, unnecessarily surpassing the speed limit, perilous overtaking, negligence in wearing seat belts, inexperience, peer pressure and showing off.
Noting that there does exist legislation against recklessness on the roads, Ms Pardiwalla pointed out that “legislation is useless if it is not enforced and if the sentencing is not a deterrent.”
It is precisely due to that, that the ‘Safe Drive - Stay Alive’ campaign has been initiated with the aim of helping individuals to “make good choices”, she said.
In an interactive exercise to emphasise the seriousness of the situation on the roads, 81 members of the audience who were handed out blue tickets prior to the start of the ceremony, were called to stand up during Ms Rigault’s intervention to illustrate loss of lives as a consequence of bad choices on the road. The seated members of the public, those holding a red ticket, represented those affected emotionally as a result of such traumatic deaths or injuries brought about by a mere mistake or a wrong choice on the road.
“Unless something changes, next year there will be another 81, 82, 83 blue tickets,” she said. “What colour will your ticket be next time?” she concluded, leaving the audience with much food for thought.