As part of its ongoing efforts to promote road safety in the Sultanate of Oman, Shell launched a promising initiative aimed at reducing crash rates in the country under the title ‘Together for Accident Free Oman’.

The prominent oil company in partnership with Sheida International and Co. and Oman Road Safety Association set off and interactive road show that will be touring 22 crowded locations across Oman, including commercial malls, colleges and universities over the month of January.

“The visitors of the road show will learn about safe driving skills from road safety experts, talk to people with life-changing experiences and share road safety issues and ideas. Visitors will also get the opportunity to try the seatbelt convincer, which simulates a low impact vehicle collision to stress on the importance of wearing a seatbelt,” said Shell Development Oman in a press release earlier this year. “The road show will also include a state of the art Driving Simulator, which will be a practical and effective educational tool to impart safe driving training techniques for all drivers.”

Numbers of car crashes in Oman are in fact among the highest worldwide; the latest available figures indicate that 6,000 people have lost their lives on the roads of Oman and 70, 000 injured between 2000 and 2008.

“Our ultimate goal is to reach the drivers’ hearts and minds and to spread the road safety culture in the society. This goal cannot be achieved without the collaboration of all segments of the society and hence comes the theme of our campaign “Together for Accident Free Oman”, said Hilal Al Mawali the External Affairs Manager, Shell Development Oman.

Shell’s commitment to global road safety in not new; the company is an active member of the Global Road Safety Partnership and one of the main financial supporters of the Global Road Safety Initiative . Since 2008, Shell has also been supporting our Road Safety activities in different parts of the Middle East and North Africa .

By: Thalia Rahme