Every year, approximately 1.3 million people are killed and 50 million injured in road accidents worldwide. According to South Africa’s Road Traffic Management Corp (RTMC), 12 545 people died in road accidents in the country in 2021. For people aged 5-29 years, there is no greater threat to their lives. And globally on the roads, 1 in 4 deaths occur among pedestrians and cyclists.
STOP, LOOK, WAVE! It’s a simple message, but one that can save lives. And it’s also the theme of Volvo Trucks’ new music video, launched during UN Global Road Safety Week 2023. The aim is to reach out to schoolchildren worldwide to instil the importance of safe behaviour, as well as heighten awareness of heavy commercial vehicles in traffic.
To attempt to change this for the better, the World Health Organization (WHO) arranges the annual UN Global Road Safety Week – inviting individuals and organisations to contribute towards the UN’s target to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries by 50% before 2030.
Volvo Trucks´ contribution is a training programme for children, called STOP LOOK WAVE, teaching them how to be safer around traffic. The programme includes a brand-new song and a music video that encourages children all over the world how to best behave around trucks, buses and cars, and to ultimately keep them safe on the roads.
The STOP LOOK WAVE programme has been presented in South Africa since 2015, and tens of thousands of children have been reached during this time through various activations at schools around the country.
“For us at Volvo, safety is in our DNA; we do not only focus on the safety features in our vehicles, but also on boosting safe behaviour in traffic to reduce the risk of accidents,” says Waldemar Christensen, MD of Volvo Trucks South Africa.
Dance moves to help spread the message
Children from all around the world are featured in the video, including from South Africa, showing how to do a set of simple, easy-to-perform dance moves that are intended to make the message more engaging and appealing to young people, and to help spread the message.
The music video and the training material launched during the UN road safety week, is an updated version of a programme launched previously in 2015. Since then, children in more than 30 countries have been reached through this initiative.
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