Mercedes-Benz brings road safety awareness to Ahmedabad

Mercedes-Benz and its group of companies have inaugurated ‘Safe Roads’ initiative in Ahmedabad. This unique corporate social responsibility (CSR) is part of the luxury carmaker’s multi-city awareness program that started in New Delhi, earlier this year.

Around 1,40,000 people die every year of road accidents, largely caused due to ignorance of safety norms and rules according to the company. In an effort to reduce this startling fatality rate on Indian roads Mercedes-Benz conceptualised the ‘Safe Roads’ initiative.

‘Safe Roads’ is a collaborative initiative of Mercedes-Benz group companies along with JP Research, Apollo Hospitals and IIT Delhi. The partner organisations have supported the initiative with research information and data on the existing scenario of road safety in India. These research reports also provide indicators of how the scenario can be improved through education and enforcement of traffic rules.

Commenting on this initiative, Jochen Feese, Head of Accident Research, Sensor Functions and Pedestrian Protection, Mercedes-Benz Cars commented: “Safety remains a core value and ofn utmost importance for Mercedes-Benz and our business units stress safety as a priority for the user, as well as for the environment they are operating in. When we learned about the accident and fatality rates in India, we decided to develop the ‘Safe Roads’ CSR initiative. This is also in line with our spirit of good corporate citizenship – which translates into contributing to the society we operate in. We hope that our initiative will kick-start an era of road safety awareness and will support a new culture of road safety among the road users in India.”

Safe Roads spreads the message of road safety through physical demonstration, visual aids and research reports. The physical demonstration is undertaken with the use of exhibits that have been brought from Germany providing a real life experience of safety measures that can potentially save lives during road accidents.

The Belt-Slide exhibit enables visitors to experience the impact of seat belts in a simulated crash environment at low speed. The aim is to increase the percentage of seat belts usage for front row passengers including driver.

Airbags including driver and passenger airbags, curtain airbags and knee bags will also be on display. A ‘Body in White’ (BiW) passenger car will highlight some of the core elements of a car structure which have high tensile strength that can absorb most of the energy during a crash and minimise passenger car intrusions.

The luxury carmaker has also kept alcohol goggles on display which will provide a unique experience to visitors. These glasses simulate the common ‘walk-the-line’ activity which causes loss of balance and delayed reaction times. Visitors will feel their susceptibility to impairments and realise the potential severe consequences that can occur due to alcohol consumption.

An absolute highlight of this initiative is the original ESF (Experimental Safety) vehicle, claims the company. The ESF 2009 will be on display to showcase a glimpse of future of safety. The ESF illustrates trailblazing innovations in the field of safety like PRE-SAFE, Braking Bag and Interactive Vehicle Communication some of which have already found their introduction into current products.