Mercedes emphasises road safety with 'Safe Roads' campaign

Mercedes-Benz group companies in association with Apollo Hospital and IIT Delhi inaugurated the ‘Safe Roads’ campaign to raise awareness about road safety in India.

The drive was flagged off by Jochen Feese, Head of Accident Research, Mercedes-Benz and aims at spreading the message of road safety through physical demonstration, visual aids and research reports.

Under one such physical demonstration, visitors were made to experience the impact of seat belts in a simulated crash test at low speeds. Similarly, visitors were warned of the severe consequences of drink and driving with special glasses which simulated the ‘walk-the-line’ activity.

Mercedes pointed out that 140,000 people die every year on Indian roads but this figure could be reduced by 70% in 10 years, through education and enforcement of safety rules and by creating awareness.

Speaking at the occasion, Eberhard Kern, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India commented on the initiative: “At Mercedes-Benz, safety is of utmost importance and precedes all our innovations and development. We are confident that initiatives like ‘Safe Roads’ will enhance the understanding of a vehicle safety systems and spread the awareness on creating safer roads for vehicle users in India. Considering the alarming rate of accidents on Indian roads, we strongly need to address not only various behavioral aspects of the vehicle users and the related infrastructure measures, but also consider making our vehicles safer and smarter by introducing advanced safety features and driver assistance systems. We strongly believe ‘Safe Roads’ initiative will be able to underline all these aspects comprehensively and make Indian roads, ‘safer’.”

The Safe Roads CSR initiative - which kicked off in Delhi today - will move to Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru, effectively covering all major metropolitan cities of the country.