On 9th November the Mayor of Athens Mrs Dora Bakoyiannis launched the FIA Foundation’s ‘Think Before You Drive’ campaign in the Greek capital. The event was organised jointly by ELPA, the Greek automobile association and Elastrack, the national distributor of the Bridgestone Corporation. Mayor Bakoyiannis stressed her personal commitment to road safety and under lined the efforts of the city to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries.
Speaking for ELPA, the Automobile and Touring Club of Greece, President Vassilis Despotopolous highlighted the country’s unacceptably high level of road fatalities and injuries. “With the European Union now having committed to reduce by 50% the number of deaths by 2010, Greece clearly needed to make road safety a greater priority than ever before” he said. “The campaign gives us a great opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of road safety among Greek road users”.
On a more personal note, the FIA Foundation David Ward spoke of his own experience surviving a serious car crash as a teenager only after having used his seat belt. “At the time I didn’t really think very much about this incident. But now I realize just how close I came to not bothering to use it at all. It was just a few seconds thought and it saved my life”. Highlighting the progress in France where there has been an unprecedented reduction in deaths from 7,800 in 2002 to 5,200 in 2005, David Ward said that Greece can also achieve the same positive results, “provided the country recognizes that death on the road is not inevitable and effective road safety policies – such as wearing seat belts, checking tyre conditions, respecting speed limits are given strong political and public support”.
The launch received extensive TV and newspaper coverage and will be promoted through a programme of local campaign events organized by Bridgestone with support from ELPA.