Kiddies car seat collection encourages road safety
Certain car dealers within the two cities, such as Kia, Hyundai, Renault and Mitsubishi, have been selected to act as drop-off points for residents who cannot get to the shopping centres.
The Car Seats for Kids campaign, a project started by Imperial Road Safety, to collect unwanted or old kiddies’ car seats is currently in full swing.This campaign, which is in line with the launch of National Transport Month (October), was rolled out in Johannesburg and Pretoria for the month of October. Imperial Road Safety and its media partner, the 947 Breakfast Club, gave the campaign the go-ahead for its sixth consecutive year, as the need to create awareness is reflected in recent research, which indicates that less than seven per cent of children in cars are being buckled in.
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The two companies have made it their mission to counter this issue by encouraging the donation of car seats by the public.“Since we first launched the Car Seats for Kids campaign in 2012, the outpouring of support that we have received from residents in these regions [Johannesburg and Pretoria] has been overwhelmingly positive.Therefore, launching the campaign again this year was an easy decision for us and we are excited to see what this year holds,” said Berenice Francis, the group commercial executive at Imperial.
The campaign has been taken to various shopping centres across the two cities, with Hillfox Value Centre in Weltevreden Park being part of the list. On 18 October, the campaign was activated at Hillfox by personnel representing Imperial.
Chris Botha, the project manager, commented on the response to the campaign. “It has been a good response, taking into consideration that this is the sixth consecutive year that the campaign has been running,” he said, appealing to more residents to donate their car seats.The project has collected over 8 000 car seats since its inception and looks to surpass this figure this year.
Chris went on to explain what happens after seats have been donated. “We send the chairs to Wheel Well who then refurbish, clean and put the seats through a safety test.
This is followed by a selection process that 947 does, to determine who will benefit from the donations, and then inform us to whom the donation will be made,” he explained.
Wheel Well is a non-profit organisation that focuses exclusively on road safety for children. Peggy Mars, the founder of Wheel Well commented, “This time of year is always exciting, as it is not only when we receive an influx of donated car seats from the public but, more importantly, it is an opportunity for us, together with Imperial Road Safety, to educate parents about the critical importance of buckling their children up correctly.”
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For more information, visit www.imperial.co.za or follow the campaign on Twitter @ImperialRdSfty and on Facebook at Imperial Road Safety.
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