Automobile Association (AA) of Kenya has embarked on a 3-month road safety campaign that seeks to raise motorists’ awareness about pedestrians visibility on the road.
Dubbed “I see you”, the campaign runs till December 2021 and targets to furnish over 20,000 school children across the 47 counties with reflective bands. It also aims at driving mutual respect between motorists and pedestrians on the road.
Chief Executive Officer Francis Theuri said 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.
“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 Mr Theuri during a distribution exercise at Lakewood Premier School in Utawala.
The National Transport and Safety Authority reveals that child and teenage victims of road accidents make up 21% of road carnage victims in Kenya. In addition, 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.
“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 said.
