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Road Safety education

Bridgestone Cycle Co., Ltd. has been working with the Japan Traffic Safety Education Association to hold a special training course on the safe riding of bicycles at local kindergartens, day care centers, and elementary schools in Ageo City since 2005. The participating children carry out activities to learn best practices for the safe riding of bicycles. Highlight topics include "safety checks before riding," the "importance of wearing helmets,"how to cross intersections and crossings," and "precautions to take when passing parked cars." Bridgestone Cycle Co., Ltd. provides the bicycles used for the course and takes part in bicycle safety checks.

Partnered with Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA), the Group hosted road safety workshops for young drivers in schools in Australia and New Zealand. In 2021, the program provided learning opportunities to more than 41,000 students. It promoted good habits and motivated them to take responsible action as drivers and passengers to stay safe on roads.

In Vietnam, where motorbikes are the most prevalent form of personal transportation, Bridgestone Tire Sales Vietnam LLC partnered with local tire dealer Xuan Tung to conduct road safety training sessions with local high school, as well as donated 900 safety helmets to the school children to promote road safety habits.

Our technical team in Vietnam provided in 2020 onsite training on road safety and tire safety knowledge to Yusen Logistics – our fleet customer who is the largest logistic provider in Vietnam. Road Safety stickers for trucks were also distributed to further encourage road safety practices.

In Phuket, Thailand, the Bridgestone Global Road Safety project was launched to raise children’s awareness of traffic safety and safe road behavior. Cooperating with the Global Road Safety Partnership and local partners, the program included events such as Road Safety Day with interactive games and contests calling for safe road behavior among students. The Group also improved local infrastructure to enhance the safety of school commuting routes.

Bridgestone Sales (Thailand) Co., Ltd. continued to support the Department of Land Transportation Thailand, in providing training course on "Safety driving & Traffic rules" for new drivers. Participants who successfully past the series of trainings and tests are awarded their driving license at the end of the course. This Driving License Training Program has been ongoing since 1990, benefiting over 42,300 participants to date. The program has been conducted six times per year in Bangkok and in other provinces.

In China, the Group is promoting traffic-safety programs together with Safe Kids China. Employee volunteers who attended training organized by Safe Kids China participated in field observations to collect data on road usage. These observations are used in the traffic-safety education curriculum offered at local schools.

Villagers in Weihai were struggling with seriously damaged roads that were affecting their safety as they drove and walked. As public funding was low in this remote town, Bridgestone worked with the local government to repair these roads, which enabled safer travels for 200 villagers.

In addition, Bridgestone worked with seven police stations throughout Hegang, Heilongjiang province, together with local tire shops, and outfitted police cars with winter tires to ensure safer travels before the long and snowy winters descended. Bridgestone also gave lectures on tire safety in winter to the police and local residents to promote road safety practices.

Think Before You Drive, a safe-driving awareness program launched by BSAM in 2005, aims to instill in drivers, the importance of traffic safety through educational programs and materials. The program conveys the importance of following the basic rules essential for safe driving, such as always wearing a seatbelt and keeping tires aligned and balanced.

Bridgestone has been partnering with universities and government agencies to implement this educational program for kids, students, and drivers to reduce traffic accidents and dangerous driving. Since 2015, they have reached more than 72,000 people in Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador.

Employees from eight countries and 13 sites in Bridgestone Europe, Middle East and Africa shared personal stories of near-miss situations. Stories were translated, illustrated, some of them put into videos and all posted online to be seen and shared with anyone to learn from these experiences and avoid similar situations. About 3,800 people visited the website.

In Poznan, Poland, employee volunteers have been involved in traffic safety education since 2008. Interactive traffic safety lessons are conducted with the Bridgestone Test Dummy characters. To date, 450 workshops have been delivered to over 33,000 students in more than 500 schools in and around Poznan.

More than 1,000 pedestrians and bicycle riders in Poznan and Wielkopolska, Poland received reflective bands from the Bridgestone Test Dummy to help them be more protected at night. Because the program took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, residents also received face masks and hand sanitizer.

Helping professional drivers operate safely also is a priority of the Bridgestone Group. Since 2020, a one-month Bridgestone-led “Eyes on the Road” campaign helped truck drivers across Middle East Africa (MEA) understand the importance of physical fitness, ergonomics, nutrition and eye health to safely performing their jobs. In April 2022, more than 600 fleet drivers participated to this campaign.

To help ensure safe mobility on the road and reduce the number of traffic accidents, Bridgestone India Private Ltd. focused on developing truck driving skills and providing a vision correction program for truckers. The Group implemented both initiatives with the help of its employee volunteers. To date, 450 youths have been trained as skilled commercial drivers, 11,000truckers have undergone vision check-ups and treatment, with 2,520 spectacles distributed to truckers for vision correction. Additionally, the program provided counseling sessions focused on adopting healthier lifestyles.

Bridgestone India Pvt. Ltd. conducted the campaign which was aimed at educating car users with importance of tire maintenance for safe journey. Customers were imparted with information on tire maintenance and various tire check-up services which included checking Tread depth, Tread wear, Tire Damages, Inflation Pressure & benefits of using Nitrogen gas for inflating tires. Tire safety booklet was also given to all the car users who come to the campaign. With the intent to reach maximum people across all sections of the society, the campaign is organized with various stakeholders at pan India at various locations like expressway, select/super select stores, housing societies, corporate houses etc.