The Shell Petroleum De
velopment Company of Nigeria (SPDC) kicked off its road safety education in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital Tuesday, with a call on parents and corporate organisation to become active partners in the campaign for responsible road usage for the safety of school children.
Speaking at St Andrews school, Diobu, Port Harcourt, venue of the event, the Managing Director of SPDC, Mr Mutiu Sunmonu said it is part of the society’s responsibility to ensure that children do not get injured or killed in their daily journey to and fro their various schools.
Sunmonu who cited the World Health Organisation (WHO) record said, “road crashes are the second leading cause of death worldwide, among young people aged between five and 14”, our school age children”.
The Shell boss who was represented at the event by the company’s Safety and Environment Manager, Dr Amadi Amadi explained that the risk of children on the road is being increased by their small statures which reduces the possibility of drivers seeing them, inability to see over parked cars and lack of experience to judge the speed and distance of oncoming vehicles.
He also blamed the high risk of children on road insufficient consideration of their specific needs in planning our roads as well as bad driving.
Sunmonu expressed the need to lay a foundation of safe road use and practices from an early  age so that it would ultimately become a way of life later on and remarked that such is the joint responsibility of the government every organisations and individuals in the state.
“That is why we at SPDC Joint Venture, have child road safety education as a key theme within our support of the improvement of road safety in the country and Rivers State in particular”, Sunmonu stated.
He said the child education programme is focused on pedestrian safety and aims at improving the outcomes of children travelling to and from school.
The SPDC MD regretted that road traffic accidents have devastated families with negative impart on economic and  business life’s and urged all and sundry to strive to bring down casualty figures and make our roads safer.
In her remarks, the Rivers State Commissioner of Education, Dame Alice Lawrence-Nemi said the Rivers State Government led by Governor Rotimi Amaechi consider the child as a wonderful asset to the socioeconomic development of the state hence it made huge investment through qualitative and free education.
The commissioner who was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr Michael West said because the state believes that investing  hugely on the child education is the best way to go it also provide libraries, computer sets, free school uniforms and sandals to school children.
She said, because the state government want the children to grow up to be responsible  citizens, there was need to protect them by ensuring that they were not lost in road accidents.
“This is why the safe routes to school initiative is imperative”, she said.
The Shell programme was in partnership with the Rivers State Ministry of Education and the Global Road Safety Partners and it is an annual event.

Chris Oluoh/ Lady Godknows Ogbulu

From Left: Dr Musa Babayo who represented Vice-President Namadi Sambo, Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac Adewole and South-West Coordinator, Tertiary Educational Trust Fund, Mrs Anna Kolawole, at a fund raising for Adegoke Olubummo International Mathematical Centre in Ibadan last Thursday. Photo: NAN