(Beijing/Shanghai) The 2008 BMW Children's Traffic Safety Education Program arrived at Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club on Thursday. The children enjoyed unique and lively traffic safety classes and experienced role-play traffic education games at the BMW Traffic Safety Theme Park. It is the fourth successive year that BMW has held the children's traffic safety themed program since 2005. Shanghai is the second stop of the ten-city events. Mr. Karl-Heinz Schmid, President of BMW China Automotive Trading Ltd., Ms. Pan Wei, Director of Pre-school Education of Shanghai Student Extracurricular Activities Office and Ms. Zhao Xianfeng, Deputy-director of Shanghai Youth Concern Commission attended the Shanghai Relay Banner Handover Ceremony.
Learning through Games at Children Traffic Theme Park, Enhancing Family Bonding by Parent-Child Interaction
Wearing safety helmets, colorful t-shirts, and under the guidance of trainers and teachers, every child attending the event looked ready to participate in themed games and learn about traffic safety rules at the Traffic Safety Theme Park in Shanghai. To provide children with an authentic simulation, the Traffic Education Theme park is designed to include an 'automobile road', 'non-automobile road', a zebra crossing with waiting area, and a standing traffic light along with assorted traffic signs. Through lively explanation by professional instructors, traffic knowledge becomes easy to understand, as children grasp quickly the meaning of various traffic signs. A test on how well they have acquired traffic knowledge comes in the form of "Traffic Safety Role Play Games". By experiencing all kinds of traffic situations in the life-like traffic environment, children can further enhance their understanding of traffic rules and consolidate the knowledge they have obtained, while also strengthening their awareness of adhering to traffic regulations and sense of self-protection.
In addition, this year's program has designed "Parent-child Interaction Games", in which parents and children will work together to accomplish the mission by answering various traffic safety related questions. Many parents expressed appreciation of the event's impact to raise traffic safety awareness among kindergarten parents while also creating an opportunity for family bonding.
With the theme "Use Zebra Crossing When Going over Street" and in cooperation with China Children's Center, BMW will set up Traffic Theme Parks at local Children's Palaces throughout 2008 and give 3200 Chinese children from over 100 kindergartens an enjoyable and interesting traffic education training session. In order to expand the influence of the program in Shanghai, the Traffic Safety Theme Park will be open to every child who attends the BMW Asian Open from 26th to 27th in addition to the 120 children from 6 kindergartens covered by the event in Shanghai from April 24th to 25th.
"Due to the limited knowledge in Traffic Safety, children would normally face more danger on the road. As an important part of BMW Corporate Social Contribution Activities in China, BMW Children's Traffic Safety Education aims to develop children's habit of adhering to traffic rules and enhance their awareness of self-protection. BMW Children's Traffic Safety Education also reflects BMW's goal in seeking long term and harmonious synergy between its commercial development and social contributions." said Mr. Karl-Heinz Schmid, President of BMW China Automotive Trading Ltd.
"Apart from caring parents, a scientific teaching method is also necessary to keep the children away from traffic accidents, and BMW has set up a good example in that respect” said Ms. Pan Wei, Director of Pre-school Education of Shanghai Student Extracurricular Activities Office in her speech, "The role play method in BMW Traffic Theme Park enables children to participate fully in traffic safety education in a dynamic and enjoyable way. This will stir up the children's enthusiasm in acquiring traffic safety knowledge and strengthening their sense of self-protection. "
Distributing Traffic Safety Package to over 500 Kindergartens to Benefit 100,000 Children in Traffic Safety Education
In China, BMW introduced its first Children's Traffic Safety Education program in 2005, and received strong support and good comments from the government at different levels and people from all walks of life. Last year BMW enlarged its Children's Traffic Safety Education program to include 15 of China's largest cities. In 2008 there will be over 100 kindergartens to participate in the program directly.
Especially worth mentioning is the fact that in 2008, BMW will be working with China's renowned kindergarten experts to prepare a "Traffic Safety Package" for children who may have no chance to directly participate in the activities of the 2008 BMW Children's Traffic Safety Education program. The “Traffic Safety Package” will include Traffic Safety Knowledge Wall Hanging Pictures, Inflatable Traffic Signs and Traffic Safety Game Cubes. At the Kick-off Ceremony Mr. Karl-Heinz Schmid, President of BMW China Automotive Trading Ltd handed over the toys from the package to local children. In 2008, BMW will distribute these packages to 500 kindergartens that are unable to participate in the program, and offer the children in these kindergartens traffic safety knowledge and interesting games. Therefore the overall number of benefiting children will increase from just over 2,000 in 2007 to over 100,000 in 2008. Upon the conclusion of the Shanghai stop activities, 50 local kindergartens in the city will receive "BMW Traffic Safety Packages".
BMW is the First Automaker to Launch Professional Road Safety Training Programs
As the number one premium car manufacturer in the world, BMW has always been striving to improve both active and passive safety, and is popularizing traffic safety education vigorously. As early as 1977, which is in 30 years ago, BMW Group had started organizing a series of road safety training programs. Over the span of 30 years, this training course has become an international project which includes 40 initiatives spanning across Europe, North America, South Africa and in China among other Asian countries.
In 2006, BMW Group invested a large amount of money to publish traffic safety textbooks, including "Practical Driving Operation Training Doohickey", "Driver's handbooks" and "Anna, Paul and Peipei". These textbooks were warmly received by all and by parents in particular.
2008 BMW Children's Traffic Safety Education Program was officially launched at China Children's Center in Beijing on April 7th, and has successfully concluded its Hangzhou stop. After the Shanghai stop, BMW will continue to roll out the program to key cities in China including Wenzhou, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, Shenyang and Beijing. BMW plans to cooperate with education departments of different levels and spare no effort in promoting children's traffic safety education in the following years. At the same time, BMW hopes that adults will also pay more attention to traffic safety and contribute to a safe and harmonious society.
