BMW Group Malaysia today launched the third edition of its BMW Safety 360° program in collaboration with the Julia Gabriel Centre and the Association of Registered Childcare Providers Malaysia (PPBM).
The program is aimed to raise awareness on road etiquette as well as in-car safety technology and practices for the upcoming school holiday and Ramadan season.
Held at the Citta Mall branch of the Julia Gabriel Centre, the event marked the start of a 6-month long program where BMW Group Malaysia will be visiting selected Kindergartens and Montessori centres throughout Malaysia to raise awareness and galvanise action for more responsible on-the-road and in-car safety practices with parents and their children.
The program kicks-off at the Julia Gabriel Centre with a week-long Traffic Safety Programme where a series of road safety themed activities and learnings are incorporated into the syllabus for the Julia Gabriel Centre children and their respective parents. This includes a visual lesson, colouring activity, role-playing activity, arts and crafts activity, play and learn activity as well as a practical lesson on how to buckle up a child’s seat belt properly.
Speaking at the event, Sashi Ambi, Head of Corporate Communications, BMW Group Malaysia said, “The BMW Safety 360° program reflects our commitment to view safety and responsibility from the complete view of technology, behaviour and action.”
Ambi added that in the first year of the BMW Safety 360° program, the premium automaker addressed motorcyclists and asked them to seek motorcycles that offered the latest technologies for safe riding. Meanwhile, in the second year, BMW Group Malaysia addressed the issue of child restraints and its importance in keeping children safe in cars.
“This year, we are continuing with our work from last year and we want to speak directly to parents and children because we believe that they are the group that urgently needs to be reached out to when raising awareness on road safety issues, particularly on those related to children,” said Ambi.
BMW Group Malaysia has enlisted the partnership of the Association of Registered Childcare Providers Malaysia (PPBM) to better communicate safety issues related to child restraints with a safety talk for the parents.
May Hwong, Child Passenger Safety Consultant to PPBM said, “It is a fact that car crashes are one of the leading causes of death and injury to babies and young children. While events leading up to the car swerving sharply, braking suddenly or colliding may be unavoidable, the outcome of how your child survives it can be. Your child must be properly restrained in a safety approved child car seat while traveling in the car, even if it is for short trips down the road.”
Many Malaysian parents aren’t aware that buckling children in age- and size-appropriate child car seats, booster seats, and seat belts reduces the risk of serious and fatal injuries. Child car seats can actually reduce the risk of death to infants by 71% and to toddlers by 54% in passenger vehicles, while booster seats reduce the risk of serious injury by 45% for children aged 4-8 years old when compared with seat belt use alone.
Further to that, PPBM also conducted a child restraint demonstration with ISOFIX technology which makes the seat exceptionally safe by eliminating the risk of the seat being incorrectly fitted in the vehicle. Additionally, a child restraint “health check” for families with car seats or booster seats was conducted to ensure appropriate seat use and installation.
