Shell Companies in India, part of the energy major Shell Group, has partnered the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), government of India, and has rolled out #DriveSafeIndia, a behaviour change program, which it says aims to drive home the importance of safe driving practices.

The initiative aims to reach 5 million millennials and will leverage social media and on ground activities for the same. Shell India says the first phase of the program saw high level of online engagement with more than 6 million impressions and 800,000 video views on Facebook and close to 400,000 impressions on Twitter. The Facebook engagement rate of 2.97 percent beat the India Road Safety 2017 benchmark of 2.0 percent. The program is targeting the top 10 road accident-prone cities of India.

Every hour India witnesses 17 deaths caused due to road accidents with nearly half of them being young adults. Around 80 percent of the fatalities are due to human action. In line with Shell’s commitment to Goal Zero that leads by the principle of ‘Safety for All’ and MoRTH’s commitment to reduce bring down road accidents by 50 percent by 2022, the three-phase program combines online and on-ground activities to inculcate safe driving habits including:

* No over-speeding

* Wearing helmets

* Wearing a seatbelt

* No driving under the influence of intoxicants

* No distracted driving

Speaking on this partnership,  Nitin Gadkari, union minister for Road Transport and Highways, said, “India sees over 500,000 road accidents leading to 150,000 fatalities. Road safety is a prime concern for the government and we aim to bring down road accidents by 50 percent by 2022. We hope inculcating safe driving behaviours amongst our youth who are just starting to drive will set the way forward for the rest of the country.  With the #DriveSafeIndia initiative in partnership with Shell, we are adding to our ongoing effort to create safer Indian roads.”

Nitin Prasad, Country Chairman, Shell Companies in India, “As more vehicles and drivers hit the fast expanding Indian road network, we need to understand the implications of rash driving to others and ourselves. We should all be able to go home safe to our loved ones every day. #DriveSafeIndia is one such effort from Shell with the support of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to create safer roads for all in India. We hope others, individuals and organisations, join us to take this movement to millions more across the country.”

The program’s on road activates will begin to roll out in colleges across India to provide an experience on the impact of safe driving practices through simulated exercises using virtual reality and animation. It will also target millennials to share their experiences of saving or losing through the adoption or lack of safe driving practices.