Evonik will take part in the VoW road safety campaign offering blind spot accidents workshops for employees and local residents.
The specialty chemicals company Evonik has entered a partnership with Transport and Logistic Flanders (TLV), a Belgian independent organisation aiming to improve the image of the transport and logistics sector by focusing on the aspect of road safety. The collaboration will allow the company’s employees from the Antwerp (Belgium) site to take part in the 'Veilig op Weg - VoW’ (Safe on the Road) campaign, an initiative on the dangers of blind spots.
An average of 50 blind spot accidents occur to trucks each year. Half of these are very serious and usually involve vulnerable road users such as cyclists. With an ever-increasing number of cycling employees, the accident risk in commuter traffic cannot be ignored. Evonik Antwerp and its traffic partner EduCare, wants then to broaden the audience for this campaign among both its own employees and the local residents of the surrounding municipalities.
“A safe commute for our employees is very important to us. The trend towards more individual mobility, and therefore more and more employees on bicycles, shifts our focus to the vulnerable road users. We also want to make VoW's goal of reducing the number of blind spot accidents our mission. More than 25% (or about 250) of our employees frequently take their bicycles and travel here via the port and surrounding municipalities. So, paying attention to the risk of blind spot accidents is really a matter for everyone. Road safety should be a shared responsibility,” stated Ivan Pelgrims, Managing Director at Evonik Antwerp. “That is why we at Evonik Antwerp are proud to be the first company to work with EduCare and VoW to offer these traffic workshops to both our own employees and residents of the surrounding municipalities.”
The VoW truck will host worksops at Evonik’s site on 27th
September and 18th October. Around 20 people can attend each day of the workshop. VoW will offer insights, through theory and practice, into what the truck drivers can and cannot see and will pass on four important rules of thumb. Moreover, the “Safe on the Road” campaign will also be in the neighbouring communities of Stabroek and Berendrecht on 26th September and 17th
October for a “Dorpsdag” (Village Day).
“This day is all about the completed infrastructure works in the centre of Stabroek. Safe and smooth traffic flow not only depends on the infrastructure. Raising awareness about the risk of blind spot accidents is therefore a must,” commented the alderman for mobility in Stabroek, Sarah Demartelaere.
“Many of our residents work in and around the Antwerp port and bicycle traffic is increasing rapidly. The vulnerable road user, and by extension everyone who travels in traffic, cannot be well enough informed about the risks. We welcome the VoW truck with open arms to our municipality on 17 October,” concluded Sandra Suykerbuyk, alderman for mobility in Berendrecht-Zandvliet-Lillo.