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National Salama Traffic Awareness Initiative Launched


Under The Patronage Of The UAE Minister Of The Interior, And In Partnership With The Emirates Foundation And The Public And Private Sectors










Under the patronage of HH Lt. General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE Minister of the Interior, the national Salama Traffic Awareness Initiative was launched today in Abu Dhabi. Salama is one of the new strategic initiatives of the Emirates Foundation, designed to address the growing challenge of road safety. It combines the talents and expertise of the Foundation, Shell, and Emirates Driving Company, and is fully supported by the Ministry of the Interior and the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (HAAD). The death toll on the nation’s roads has reached alarming figures and road accidents have become the second largest cause of death in the UAE. Extensive efforts are now planned to address the issue. The Salama logo was revealed during the launch event, symbolizing this new campaign to raise road safety consciousness throughout the community – with parents, children and teenagers, at schools, and for drivers in general. The intention is that road accident and death levels will drop – and will keep on dropping. Salama will be launching campaigns covering the highest road safety risk factors (high speeds, use of seat belts, etc) as well as a safety “check-list”. These are designed to support the awareness campaign, and ensure fewer casualties of all types, while safeguarding individual welfare. Speaking at the launch event, Colonel Gaith Al-Zaabi, Director of Traffic at the Ministry of the Interior, said: “Preserving security and the safety of people and their belongings are of the pillars of the Ministry’s role. Because of the importance of this topic, we have given it our full attention. “The vision of HH Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the UAE, is very clear in requiring us to achieve the strategic goals of the Government. The first of these is to preserve the lives of the community from any abuse – including neglectful action by individuals to themselves and others, through reckless driving and disrespect for road safety principles.” Colonel Zaabi added: “The Ministry of the Interior will be applying many steps to improve traffic safety – aiming to reduce the percentage of road crashes and the consequential loss in life and material, by increasing traffic awareness among road users.” Colonel Zaabi stressed the role of the public and the media in traffic awareness, inviting all to “unify their efforts and share ideas, with the aim of achieving real results.” Ahmed Ali Sayegh, Managing Director of the Emirates Foundation commented: “The Salama initiative signifies the introduction of significant steps to reduce the loss of lives on our roads. It will thus boost awareness of the risks involved in road crashes. In ensuring the safety of all road users, the initiative demonstrates our commitment to every possible measure that can guarantee success”. He added: “The participation of the Emirates Foundation as a co-founder and main partner in this campaign fits well with our strategic goals -- and our mission to encourage both public and private sectors to launch new joint initiatives to develop our community in the best interests of all”. He expressed his gratitude “to the large number of stakeholders from NGOs and the public and private sectors,” and offered special thanks to “the hundreds of volunteers, men and women, from the Takatof volunteering programme, who will carry out many useful activities to achieve the traffic awareness goals of Salama.” In closing, he urged “…all active members of our community to support Salama, both financially and as a social responsibility.” Tayyeb kamali, emirates driving company chairman, one of the founding partners of Salama said that three lives were lost unnecessarily every day in the UAE, with dozens injured. Almost 25 per cent of them were UAE nationals, mostly very young. This apart, the loss to public and private property amounted to almost US$ one million plus $ 800,000 per victim, according to latest global studies. He added: “The Emirates Driving Company aims to play an effective role in promoting road safety through these campaigns, events and conferences in the UAE and the region. We will do this in collaboration with leading organizations in this field. The Salama initiative is one such promising outcome.” Mr. Irshad Lawati, Deputy Managing Director, Shell UAE, another founding partner, explained: “Shell’s partnership in this unique initiative is in line with the objectives and standards set by the Shell Group to ensure safety of its employees, customers, contractors and citizens of the countries it operates in. Spreading awareness, fending off safety hazards, and commitment to regulations and ethics that protect our safety and the safety of others, are all initiatives we are proud to implement.” He gave examples of Shell’s commitment to traffic safety saying: “through Shell’s sponsorship of Basil Shaaban, a Formula 3 driver and UN road safety ambassador, we strive to engage and educate the young about the importance of driving safely, on and off the track”. He concluded: “From this perspective comes our cooperation with the Emirates Foundation in this road safety campaign. We hope to employ Shell’s global experiences as well as regional road safety initiatives to the benefit of the campaign. With this partnership, we are committed to ensuring that Salama road safety awareness campaign is unique, not only in the UAE, but to the whole region”.

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