FedEx and Safe Kids Thailand Launch ‘Children Need Our Hand’ Pedestrian Safety Program in Bangkok

Tuesday 11 January 2011 14:17
FedEx Express, the world’s largest express transportation company, and Safe Kids Thailand today launched the Safe Kids Walk This Way program with more than 50 primary school children in Bangkok. This program aims to educate students on pedestrian safety and save lives.

Thailand is the fifth FedEx country in the Asia Pacific region to launch the FedEx Express Safe Kids Walk This Way program. The ceremony took place at the Wat Phraya Yang school in Bangkok.

In Thailand traffic accidents are the second leading cause of child fatality, with an estimated 700-900 fatalities annually among youngsters under the age of fifteen. An additional 21,000 children suffer injuries annually as a result of traffic accidents, according to CSIP’s study during the period of 1999-2007.

“More than 90% of road traffic deaths occur in low and middle-income countries such as Thailand,” said Associate Professor Adisak Plitponkarnpim, director of the Child Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center (CSIP) of Safe Kids Thailand. “Reasons for road traffic deaths and injuries are known and can be prevented. They include, in particular, infrastructure that fails to protect pedestrians. By teaching pedestrian safety and changing the environment around schools, our Safe Kids Walk This Way program helps to protect our children, prevents injuries and saves lives.”

Safe Kids Thailand conducted surveys at 50 primary schools in Bangkok looking into matters such as the level of accidents around these schools and the road conditions, and as a result of these surveys selected Wat Phraya Yang school and Phaya Thai School in Bangkok as part of the Walk this Way program.

The objectives of this program are to stimulate, encourage and inspire children, teachers, parents and their relatives, as well as the local community, to be aware of good pedestrian safety knowledge and practice. With three integrated components—environment modifications, pedestrian safety education and enforcement—and with the involvement of local authorities and FedEx volunteers, this program helps to create a sustainable, safe environment for students, teachers and parents when traveling to and from school on foot.

Safe Kids Thailand provides a training workshop on pedestrian safety for nearly 100 teachers at selected schools. Traffic safety corners on school grounds, with working traffic lights, zebra crossings and traffic safety signs allow the students to practice their pedestrian safety skills in a real world setting and to bring the lessons outside of the classroom. As a part of theprogram, Safe Kids Thailand also constructs or redesigns sidewalks surrounding the schools to provide a safer environment for students to walk in every day.

“Working in Thailand, we see the effects of poor traffic safety education every day,” said David Carden, managing director, FedEx Express Thailand and Indochina. “We have a number of vehicles on the road in Thailand and across the region. Safety is a priority at FedEx. Our support of the Safe Kids Walk this Way program in Thailand demonstrates our commitment to the communities in which we operate and to ensuring safer roads for our children.”

The recent First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety approved the ‘Moscow Declaration’ endorsing, among others, the development and implementation of policies and infrastructure solutions to protect all road users, in particular, those who are most vulnerable such as pedestrians and especially children. “The Safe Kids Walk This Way program is a good example of governments, the private sector and NGOs working together to contribute to the goals of the Moscow Declaration,” said Mr. Chinnaworn Boonyakiat, Minister of Education. “The Ministry of Education and Training is delighted to be a part of this social initiative that seeks to protect our children while using the roads, and educates them regarding pedestrian safety.” he said.

About Safe Kids Walk This Way

The Walk This Way program was created by Safe Kids Worldwide and FedEx in the United States in 1999. The program has worked with more than a million students and thousands of schools in Brazil, Canada, China, Korea, Philippines and the United States. Walk This Way is a multifaceted program that includes education, safety task forces that make environmental improvements to areas where children walk, research and law enforcement all working to promote child pedestrian safety. It is the first program to be implemented by the Safe Kids Foundation as they begin their injury prevention activities for children in India.

FedEx, the exclusive corporate sponsor of the Safe Kids Walk This Way program, provides safety expertise and assists in the collection of research data to document the problems faced by child pedestrians. With FedEx financial assistance, Safe Kids Worldwide also helps fund pedestrian safety task forces in high-risk areas. FedEx volunteers conduct classroom education, escort children to and from school on International Walk to School Day and serve on school-based pedestrian safety committees. Every October, more than 1,000 FedEx volunteers in more than 150 cities around the world work with Safe Kids to keep children safe. For more information about Walk This Way, visit www.usa.safekids.org/wtw.

Safe Kids Worldwide

Safe Kids Worldwide is a global network of organizations whose mission is to prevent accidental childhood injury, a leading killer of children fourteen and under. More than 450 coalitions in nineteen countries bring together health and safety experts, educators, corporations, foundations, governments and volunteers to educate and protect families. The organization is dedicated to the prevention of unintentional injuries such as road traffic injuries, falls, burns, drowning and poisoning.

The Safe Kids Walk this Way program implemented in Vietnam has been adapted by other Safe Kids countries around the world, celebrating its 10 year anniversary in 2009. The Safe Kids, Walk This Way program has been adapted to match specific conditions of Thailand to ensure the greatest effectiveness of the project.

About FedEx Corp.

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) provides customers and businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and business services. With annual revenues of $37 billion, the company offers integrated business applications through operating companies competing collectively and managed collaboratively, under the respected FedEx brand. Consistently ranked among the world's most admired and trusted employers, FedEx inspires its more than 285,000 team members to remain "absolutely, positively" focused on safety, the highest ethical and professional standards and the needs of their customers and communities. For more information, visit news.fedex.com.

About FedEx Express

FedEx Express is the world's largest express transportation company, providing fast and reliable delivery to every U.S. address and to more than 220 countries and territories. FedEx Express uses a global air-and-ground network to speed delivery of time-sensitive shipments, by a definite time and date with a money-back guarantee[1].

NOTE TO EDITORS: FedEx Express press releases are available on the World Wide Web at http://news.fedex.com.

For further information, please contact:

Stacey Han, Senior Corporate Communications Specialist, FedEx Korea, Thailand and Indochina, Tel: + 82 330 4620; Email: [email protected], orAziam Burson-Marsteller: James Best Tel: 02 252 9871 Email: [email protected]

[1] Subject to relevant terms and conditions