UK & Ireland: Olympic Athletes and London Children Join Forces for International Road Safety

Olympic athletes from Jamaica and South Africa joined a group of London schools on 12 July 2012 to call for action to tackle the number one killer of children around the world. The athletes and kids ran on the school track as part of the ‘Zenani campaign’ for global road safety launched by Nelson Mandela’s family in memory of his great-granddaughter, who sadly died as the result of a car accident in 2010.

Some of the world’s leading athletes, including Olympic champion Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce, Olympic silver medallist Sherone Simpson, and Olympic gold medallist Nesta Carter, as well as children from schools in Dulwich and Herne Hill, ‘ran for their lives’ on Alleyn’s School track to raise awareness of the need to combat the biggest killer of young people aged 10 and over globally. Together with the Dulwich and Herne Hill Safe Routes group, local schools have been successfully campaigning for improved road safety over the past year and have now joined the Zenani campaign.

The Zenani campaign has been established by Nelson Mandela’s daughter and granddaughter together with the Road Safety Fund and the Make Roads Safe campaign. It is part of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety.

Both the athletes and schools are supporting the Zenani campaign which is calling for key measures to reduce the death rate worldwide, including: safe crossings, footpaths and cycleways to school, tougher action to prevent drink driving and speeding, better protection for child passengers on motorcycles and in cars, and graduated driver licencing to help young novice drivers. In many countries around the world, these measures are lacking and are urgently needed to reduce the growing numbers of child fatalities and injuries.

Additional links:

Original source: Nelson Mandela Day News

United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety (Road Safety Fund website)

Zenani Campaign website