The Bangalore police’s road safety initiative now has a new brand ambassador. The first to don the title is none other than The Wall, aka Rahul Dravid.
Mr. Dravid, who has retired from international cricket, is the first campaigner for the police’s programme, Friends for Road Safety. The public interest campaign aims at promoting road discipline and ensuring road safety to prevent accidents.
Constructive role
Showing that he is truly fit for the job, Mr. Dravid started off by drawing the attention of the audience to the role played by traffic constables every day, “doing the thankless job of performing impossible tasks”. He also emphasised on the role of the citizen here. “We have to play a constructive role to make theirs and our lives easier.”
Public support crucial
Admitting that he has often grumbled about the small traffic jams across the city, he said it was “virtually impossible for the police to do anything without public support.”
The idea behind this campaign was to catch children at a young age and impart the knowledge of road safety as they are the future citizens, he added.
Around 300 city schools have enrolled for the road safety and signage training organised every Saturday at Traffic Park.
The campaign was launched during the prize distribution ceremony for students who won the drawing competition on the theme of road safety.
More lined up
Also present at the event were Bangalore city Police Commissioner B.G. Jyoti Prakash Mirji and Additional Police Commissioner (Traffic and Security) M.A. Saleem.
The latter said: “We have done many campaigns in the past like drive against drunken driving, compulsory wearing of seat belts, uniform speed limits for the city, safe route to schools, and they all had good impact on the road users. There are many more things lined up for the future.”
