Caltex gears up to reinforce its contributions towards road safety

Road accidents are preventable yet cause extremely high socio economic repercussions. According to the year 2015 statistics published by the Sri Lankan government nearly 39,000 accidents has happened during the year of which 2,600 has been fatal. On average 7 deaths per day was recorded. Many more have lost their loved ones, especially the family’s bread winner’. This unfortunate situation can be and should be managed immediately through effective awareness on road safety.

Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC, manufacturer and marketer of Caltex branded Lubricants in Sri Lanka is the company at the forefront in promoting road safety through the many awareness initiatives done over the past 12 years. Having identified and understood the dire need to address the urgency for effective road safety awareness, the company re – launched “Caltex Drive Wise, Embrace Life” campaign in partnership with the Sri Lanka Police department, S. Thomas’ College Batch of ’82, TV Derana and the EAP broadcasting media Network.

Since the year 2003 Caltex has made significant contributions to promote road safety in Sri Lanka. The company has conducted street dramas at densely populated areas and has used placards with hard hitting road safety messages directed at the commuters to Colombo during peak traffic hours. Further the Caltex safety message cutouts carrying important safety messages displayed islandwide at Police stations, schools, and at locations where accidents most commonly occur, has strongly influenced road safety throughout the years.

“Caltex Road Star” launched in the year 2009 and “Caltex Drive Wise, Embrace Life” launched in the year 2012 are the main road safety awareness campaigns conducted by Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC together with the Sri Lanka Traffic Police department.
“Caltex Drive Wise, Embrace Life – 2016” is an extension to the original campaign with the addition of a cycle ride participated by the representatives of S. Thomas’ College Class of ‘82. “Caltex Drive Wise, Embrace Life – 2016 cycle ride” will flag off on the 25th of October 2016 from Muttuval at 4 pm and will be ridding 1300 kilometers around the country over a 12 day period. The cycle ride will conclude on the 5th of November with the final lap which will start near Prince of Wales College in Moratuwa, heading to S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia in a grand parade with the participation of students, well-wishers and many key stakeholders of Chevron, leading to the festivities at the Thomian Fair.
The “Caltex Drive wise, Embrace life -2016” campaign intends on educating the children as well as adults to inculcate short term and long term safe behavior on the road. Aligned to the Caltex Drive Wise, Embrace Life – 2016 cycle ride” the road safety awareness activities such as seminars for school children, Seminars for adults and mini carnivals will happen in Negambo, Jaffna, Batticaloa, Anuradhapura and Matara.

With the support of the Ministry of Education and the Sri Lanka Police department special seminars will be conducted for students in over 25 schools in Sri Lanka. In association to Road safety topics essay and art competitions will also be held for the students and the winners will be rewarded by Chevron. There will be 10 programs organized for the adults in the 5 locations. The adults will be tested on the knowledge shared during the seminar and will be rewarded based on their performance. At the end of the 2 day local activity program a mini carnival will be organized at each of the 5 towns to promote road safety amongst all through a fun and entertainment filled experience.

Chevron intends on further strengthening its contributions towards road safety awareness in Sri Lanka by activating the “Caltex Road Star” campaign in the near future. “Caltex Road Star” campaign is to use positive reinforcement to promote safe road behavior among motorist.

During the “Caltex Road Star” campaign, the Caltex Road Star team comprising of officials from the Sri Lanka Motor Traffic Police together with the official media partners for this project will patrol the designated cities in the Caltex Road Star vehicle to identify motorists who drives without committing any traffic offenses. Daily five winners will be selected on the spot by the designated panel of judges for reward and recognition. Further, three winners will picked from the pool of daily winners to receive special awards and recognition as Caltex Road stars.

The company’s CSR commitment towards improving the lives of “People” has been evident through many CSR initiatives. Chevron has made momentous contributions to improve medical care facilities for Sri Lankans through the donations made to the public health sector. Further the company has promoted environmental protection and better education for the future generation through many other CSR initiatives.

“Increase in road accidents during the recent years indeed is a grave problem and needs to be addressed immediately for the betterment of all Sri Lankans. We hope that through “Caltex Drive wise, Embrace life -2016” campaign, the required corrective measures will be instilled to reduce and eliminate such occurrences in the future” commented Mr. Kishu Gomes Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC.