A campaign ends, the cause continues
Suzuki Motorcycle India recently concluded a massive nationwide road safety campaign,
#HelmetForLife. The campaign aimed to promote the use of helmets and thereby improve the safety of two-wheeler riders. The objective of the campaign was to create awareness amongst riders in the top 15 cities with the highest number of fatalities. Suzuki collaborated with the traffic police of these cities to spread the message and encourage the adoption of safe riding practices.
The cities chosen for the campaign were Gurugram, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Surat, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Dehradun, Calicut, Pune, Nagpur, Vijayawada and Kolkata. Suzuki’s teams fanned out across these 15 cities to flag down riders without helmets. The activity was conducted at a minimum of five busy signals across these cities. While the riders were penalised by the traffic police, they were also told about the importance of wearing a helmet and if they didn’t have a helmet, Suzuki gave them a free fullface helmet to encourage them to follow this basic safety norm. 13,000 helmets were distributed in 15 cities and the campaign reached out to millions of more riders across the country.
At the launch of this campaign on June 18, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Suzuki Motorcycle India, Sajeev
Rajasekharan, along with other top management representatives of the company, gave away the keys of five Suzuki Gixxer motorcycles to assistant commissioner of the Gurugram Police, Manish Sehgal in an event organised at the Suzuki plant in Gurugram. The bikes sported police colours and were fitted with all the required accessories like radio, siren, panniers, windscreen and emergency lights. Police departments of each of the cities that hosted the campaign got similar bikes to help the city police in their patrol duties. Totally, 65 Suzuki Gixxer motorcycles were handed over to the various traffic police departments across India.
Concluding the campaign successfully, managing director, Suzuki Motorcycle India, Satoshi Uchida, says, “Two-wheelers are a preferred mode of commuting among urban and rural population in India at the same time accounting for maximum fatalities due to helmet-less riding. The initiative was taken to help people inculcate the habit of wearing helmet even for the pillion riders. At Suzuki, offering high-quality products, great riding experience and ensuring rider safety is of utmost importance and this campaign reiterates our commitment. We are thankful to the traffic police officials and authorities whose support has been instrumental in making this campaign a huge success.”
“Through the Helmet For Life campaign and with the support of traffic police officials, we have been able to spread the message of safe riding to maximum numbers of riders across cities. We are grateful to every individual who has supported us in making this campaign a successful one. While we understand that complete behavioural change might take time to take place, we hope to see some changes in the rider’s attitude towards their own safety.”