Ferrari Formula One stars Michael
Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello have teamed up
for a new race: a race to save lives on the road.
At the launch of Think Before You Drive, a new global
road safety campaign led by the
FIA Foundation and Bridgestone Corporation, seven times Formula
One world champion
Michael Schumacher and his Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello
formed an elite pit
crew to demonstrate basic, potentially life saving activities that
all car users should follow every time they drive in a car:
• Always use a child restraint
• Always wear your seat belt
• Adjust your head restraint
• Check your tyre condition
Designed to help reduce road deaths, globally estimated
at 1.2 million a year, ‘Think
Before You Drive’ will promote these simple road safety messages
aimed at limiting the
severity of injuries in a crash or even helping to prevent a crash
occurring.
The campaign also addresses many of the key road
safety risk factors, including
speeding and driving while under the influence of intoxicants. The
campaign’s icon, a
crash test dummy who acts as the ‘road safety expert’
in communicating the campaign’s
messages, supervised the Ferrari drivers’ safety checks at
the launch.
Speaking at the launch, hosted at the Spanish Grand
Prix by the Royal Automobile Club
of Catalonia (RACC), Michael Schumacher praised the Think Before
You Drive
campaign:
“Before every Formula One race I run through
basic safety checks with my pit crew. And
there are some simple tasks I always do to help me stay safe on
the road. So I am
pleased to support the road safety messages of the Think Before
You Drive campaign”.
“On the race track, the performance of my
tyres can make the difference between
winning and losing. On the road, the performance of your tyres could
make the
difference between living and dying. Check your tyre pressure and
condition regularly
and stay safe on the road. Think Before You Drive”.
Rubens Barrichello explained why he is supporting
the initiative:
“Three thousand people are killed on the world’s
roads every day. We can all do more to
prevent these unnecessary and tragic deaths and injuries. The Think
Before You Drive
campaign promotes simple road safety behaviour that can help to
keep every car driver
and passenger safe on the roads”.
Following the global launch at the Spanish Formula
One Grand Prix in Barcelona on
May 5 th 2005, the ‘Think Before You Drive’ campaign
will be rolled out in Europe and
then across the world over the next three years.
For Bridgestone Corporation, the campaign is an
extension of the tyre safety educational
activities that the Bridgestone Group companies globally conduct
in Japan, North
America, Europe and other regions. For the FIA Foundation, the campaign
builds on
recent successful seat belt campaigning in Europe and Latin America.
Components
of the campaign include:
• Millions of road safety advice booklets contributed
by Bridgestone which will
be distributed by campaign partners, including national automobile
clubs affiliated
to the FIA Foundation;
• Seat belt crash simulators provided by the FIA Foundation
will be in action at
the Bridgestone stand at European stages of the Formula One Grand
Prix
season and at major Motor Shows;
• Millions of tyre gauges for measuring tyre pressure and
tread depth will be
distributed to the public at campaign events, by automobile club
roadside patrols
and at Formula One Grand Prix races;
• Red ‘Think’ wristbands that can be worn to show
support for the campaign.
Commenting on the campaign, Minekazu Fujimura, Chairman,
CEO and President of
Bridgestone Europe said:
“As the world’s biggest manufacturer
of tyres and rubber products, we are keenly aware
of our responsibility to do everything possible to maximise safety.
That includes working
to acquaint customers with the basics of tyre safety and to inform
them about the
importance of routine tyre inspections. Our Bridgestone Tyre Safety
Project, launched in
Japan in 2003, is an initiative to enlist customers in the pursuit
of tyre safety. Our
collaboration with the FIA Foundation is a welcome opportunity to
globalise that
initiative.”
David Ward, Director General of the FIA Foundation,
said:
“If more drivers and car occupants followed
the simple advice in our campaign - wearing
a seat belt, using a child restraint, checking head rests and tyres
– thousands of
unnecessary injuries and deaths could be prevented. This is the
objective of Think
Before You Drive”.
RACC President, Sebastia Salvado, said:
"We can not accept that half of Spanish drivers
do not yet use their seat belt. People
must know how important it is that they cooperate to reduce road
deaths. Governments
can develop new policies to improve road safety, but the efforts
of the different
administrations and automobile clubs to reduce these appalling figures
are worthless if
there is a lack of respect toward the traffic rules from most of
the drivers." |
