In a bid to sensitize children on how trucks operate in traffic, SMT Ghana, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, has introduced a Volvo Truck traffic safety campaign dub: ‘Stop, Look and Wave’.

The campaign, which is a global initiative by the Volvo Group, an international partner of SMT Ghana, seeks to give children the world over the opportunity to better understand how trucks operate in traffic.

It involves the application of an easy-to-understand way of making kids aware of the risks and how best to avoid them.

Children learn how to interact safely with commercial vehicles in traffic. In most traffic situations it is difficult for a driver to detect pedestrians and cyclists who are close to the truck.

 The training programme, therefore, focuses on how important it is for children to be attentive and make eye contact with the truck driver and make him aware of their presence by waving at him before crossing the road.

Mrs Hilda Peasah, Marketing Manager of SMT Ghana, who informed the press of the company’s commitment to engage more schools observed that trucks and heavy-duty equipment have more blind spots than normal passenger cars as such they are not the same when it comes to road safety.

“It is therefore important to educate our young ones on the safer use of roads when dealing with trucks. We will annually visit 4 schools (one in every quarter) to ensure more schools and school children are fully educated during this entire campaign. 

Mrs. Peasah reiterated that SMT Ghana and the Volvo Group have adopted this road safety campaign as a key corporate social responsibility program because Volvo as an International company gives utmost priority on safety.

“Volvo Group in fact has safety in its DNA and that is why we go beyond to even train our customers on the best and safer use of our trucks after purchase”.

Christian home International School located at Dansoman was the next beneficiary of the Volvo Truck traffic safety course. A demo presentation from Volvo was first showed on how to cross the road safely before the kids were taken to the field for practical training.

They were later presented with gifts and a participation certificate from the Volvo Group.

The lead facilitator was, Mr Jasper Agbakpe, the Training Manager, who is also a Certified Volvo trainer for SMT Group and Mr. Godfred Sessah-Johnson, Health & Safety Manager of SMT Ghana was also on hand for a practical demonstration on the safer use of roads by pedestrians and cyclists.

The headmaster of Christian Home School, Mr Joseph Noble Nkrumah, was full of praise for SMT Ghana and the Volvo Group for educating school children on road safety.

“Children run across the road without taking note of what lies ahead of them so I believe this is a wonderful initiative to safeguard the future of our young ones. Lessons learnt will let them be careful anytime they’re crossing the road,” he said.

Mr. Nkrumah urged stakeholders in the educational sector to take a cue from the exercise and promote it. He expressed optimism that such campaign will make the kids knowledgeable on road safety to go a long way to minimise road accidents.