Throughout 2020, Fundación MAPFRE will continue in their efforts to generate awareness towards road safety measures by educating children and the public in general on road safety measures.
Fundación MAPFRE has teamed-up with Doctors for Road Safety (D4RS), 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 newly 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 (FRDT) course. Presently, D4RS have already provided around 50 doctors with the relevant knowledge opportunities to practice 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 of 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.