General Motors spearheads campaign on road safety awareness
Print Edition
UPHOLDING a long-term commitment as a responsible corporate citizen in China, General Motors wants to make the country a better place.
With China becoming an “automobile society,” defined by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as having 20 or more vehicles for every 100 households, road safety is increasingly a matter of public interest. General Motors believes it can help make a big difference in this area.
In June, its Buick brand launched the “Good Drivers of China” campaign with China Central Television, encouraging people to record and share videos of good driving habits. The 3-month event attracted over 1.3 million followers.
The company believes public awareness starts with early education, meaning reaching out to schools so children learn the importance of road safety.
“General Motors has made child safety a priority in China,” says Matt Tsien, GM executive vice president and GM China president, who volunteered at General Motors’s Safe Kids Safe Ride program in October.
The company kicked off this program in June in cooperation with its 18-year partner Safe Kids Worldwide, a global non-profit organization dedicated to reducing vehicle-related child injuries.
Since then, more than 500 volunteers from GM China and its joint ventures in China have visited kindergartens and primary schools in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xiamen this year, bringing knowledge of child safety seats and safe driving habits to over 18,000 children and their families through fun and interactive activities, according to Zhao Xiaobing, corporate social responsibility director of GM China. The company is also interested in exploring other channels to promote road safety eduction, like at dealerships.
“We shared some very important but easily forgotten safety tips,” says GM China volunteer Frank Hu. “As both a car owner and a father, I plan to share these tips with my friends and family members.”
GM’s top three tips are put small children in child safety seats in the back seat, never leave children alone in a car, and don’t let them play in the driver’s blind spot.
Kids are also taught in demonstration vehicles how to use GM's in-vehicle communication system, OnStar, to make emergency calls.
The company focuses on rural areas, where children have relatively poor traffic safety awareness, according to the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation.
This week, GM volunteers are revisiting Ya’an, Sichuan, where it launched the “Let Me See You” traffic safety schoolbag initiative last year. The initiative is on top of its 4 million yuan (US$650,000) donation to support relief and rebuilding efforts in the earthquake-hit area.
Zhao says the volunteer work participation rate at GM China is one of the highest among all carmakers in China, with nearly one third of the company’s employees participating in its social responsibility program, which also runs nature habitat restoration projects. It is all about giving back to communities.
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