German car brand Volkswagen is serious about their advocacy towards road safety. Their recent activation of Child Safety Initiative (CSI) campaign allows the brand to breached its 10,000 child participants which helps to address early childhood safety awareness to children from 4 to 8 years of age.

The Child Safety Initiative (CSI) emphasizes the timeliness and urgency of pedestrian and motorist safety efforts. According to figures released by the Philippine Statistics Office in May 2017, an average of 34 Filipinos are killed every day in road accidents, and that the main cause of deaths among Filipino youths aged 15 to 19 are road accidents. It also revealed that transport-related crashes increased sharply from 15,572 in 2014 to 24,565 in 2016.

Data from Safe Kids Worldwide Philippines (SKWP) revealed that globally, an estimated 1.25 million people are killed and over 50 million are injured in road crashes annually, and that by 2020, road traffic crashes are expected to increase by 80-percent in low-and middle-income countries due to increasing motorization.

The Philippine auto industry has had record-breaking increases in vehicle sales the past few years. With the dramatic increase of the number of motorized vehicles on the road, the sharp rise of motorist and pedestrian accidents are also bound to happen, unless a concerted effort from the government and private sectors is initiated to avert the trend.

Graduates of the Junior Driving Course receive their Junior Driver’s License, while participants who pass the Steps to Safety program get their road safety badge. More than receiving their licenses and badges, these kids and their parents have hopefully removed themselves from being potentially part of the tragic statistics of road accidents.