Abu Dhabi, June 12th, 2012 (WAM) -- In an effort to promote safe driving among commuters, Shell in partnership with Emirates Driving School invited drivers from Al Ghazal Transport, one of the emirates largest transport companies, to participate in a day-long road safety session.
Dr. John Barry, Shells Abu Dhabi Chairman led the discussion explaining to the teams Shells measures of road safety, "Shell staff and contractors drive more than 1.1 billion kilometers each year, enough to go 75 times around the globe every day" he said, "safe driving is a priority for us, and is reflected in the number of road safety initiatives we host worldwide."Craig Sherrin, Emirates Driving Companys new CEO highlighted that "EDC will be proud to be a hub for safety days and to support Road Safety initiative for our partners (we have partnered with Shell and Emirates Foundation for youth development from 2008 on Salama Road Safety Initiatives). This will increase EDCs capacity to target the level of human factor which is a major contributor to the road safety" also he added that "it is part of our leading role to provide driving education contributing to safer roads for the community" Dino Kalivas, Director of Business Development, states "Emirates Driving Company is excited to implement new systems for driver assessment during simulation and EDC is also introducing for the first time in Middle East a hazard perception test for new curriculums (bus, heavy vehicle, motorcycle and light vehicles)". Members of Al Ghazal transport were given a chance to test their safe driving skills on state of the art driving simulators which replicated real world driving scenarios, and displayed the life-saving benefits of wearing seatbelts during mock accidents. In 2009, Shell launched the 12 mandatory Life-Saving Rules as a way to increase the focus on critical safety risks within the company. The rules prescribe what employees and contractors must know and do to prevent serious injury or fatality, for example: wearing seat belts and not speeding or using mobile phones even hands-free while driving. If rules are broken, employees face disciplinary action up to termination of employment, while contractors can be removed from the site and barred from future work with Shell.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2012.
