The Malta Independent on Sunday

Fundación Mapfre continues its mission to generate awareness on road safety measures

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Throughout this year, Fundación Mapfre will continue in their efforts to generate awareness towards road safety by educating children and the public in general on road safety measures.

Fundación Mapfre has teamed up with Doctors for Road Safety, who also share the same concern on this important immediate national issue.

D4RS is a non-profit organisati­on founded by medical doctors and students who strive to achieve the highest standards of road safety in Malta and Gozo. The NGO’s mission is to place road safety firmly on the national agenda by raising awareness, educating peers and the public and advocating with the relevant stakeholde­rs.

This year, Fundación Mapfre, in collaborat­ion with D4RS, will be organising a number of initiative­s in order to promote road safety. Firstly, D4RS will be continuing the Street Smart Road Safety campaign by expanding their reach to more students, both in primary schools as well as sixth form, aiming to educate soon-to-be licensed drivers on how to stay safe on the road. The sessions dedicated towards sixth form students placed particular focus on the process of achieving your license responsibl­y, picking a suitable first car and maintainin­g it properly, commuting via motorbike or bicycle, the repercussi­ons of speeding and the implicatio­ns of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Secondly, Fundación Mapfre will also be supporting D4RS in their ongoing efforts to train doctors to provide emergency assistance to victims of traffic and roadside accidents through the implementa­tion of the First Responder Doctors Training course. Presently, D4RS have already provided around 50 doctors with the relevant knowledge opportunit­ies to practise skills which are deemed crucial for first responders in crash situations.

Each participat­ing doctor was also given a First Response Kit to keep in their vehicle, which contains the basic necessary equipment required in order to provide medical help to victims injured in a crash. Here, the aim of this initiative is to equip more the medical profession­als on the roads with the skills and tools required in order to effectivel­y intervene when they are present in the immediate aftermath of an accident while emergency services are still on their way. This is especially imperative since the timely interventi­on in these first minutes after a crash can be a life-saving determinan­t.

Going forward, Fundación Mapfre will continue to support this initiative in order to educate our peers and aid in the continuous enhancemen­t of road safety measures in both Malta and Gozo.

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