Brewery company joins effort to promote road safety

Budweiser China, a subsidiary of the Leuven, Belgium-headquartered AB InBev -- the world's biggest brewer by production volume -- will join hands with all stakeholders to promote a safe road environment in China, said a senior executive.

The company has been actively participating in the "Traffic Safety Experiential Course" program hosted by China Children's Press and Publication Group in recent years.

The program features new toolkits to help improve traffic safety for children, as well as introduce new online courses, said Gracy Gao, vice-president for corporate affairs at Budweiser China.

She made the remarks during an event celebrating China's 10th National Traffic Safety Day, organized by Budweiser China and the Shanghai Public Security Bureau's traffic police general brigade in Shanghai on Thursday.

The lives of approximately 1.3 million people are cut short because of a traffic collision every year, and traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged between 5 and 29 years old, data from the World Health Organization shows.

Budweiser China has donated 500,000 yuan($78,200)worth of 730 sets of "Traffic Safety Education Magic Boxes", 100 traffic safety conduct toolkit for children, and 5,000 children's reflective vests to schools, kindergartens and communities across China this year, she said.

By the end of March this year, the program has staged 14 national-level demonstrations and mobilized more than 1,000 volunteers to visit over 3,000 schools and communities for traffic safety education, having benefited more than 1 million children and teenagers in China.

The company has already equipped some of its trucks with a new intelligent tachograph system across China to ensure road safety via the use of digital solutions. The AI-enabled system can identify various risk factors from road condition to driver status in a smart, real-time manner and issue automatic alerts to drivers for effective intervention.

Gao said the driving safety of employees in the logistics and distribution parts is one of the company's priorities. As the largest beer supplier in the Asia-Pacific region, Budweiser China owns over 24 thousand trucks and completes more than 360 thousand safe transportation trips every year.

Local data also showed that among the traffic accidents involving young Chinese drivers in 2020, about 20.55 percent were caused by drink-driving.

As one of the first companies in China to embrace anti-drink-driving awareness campaigns, Budweiser China has committed itself to this cause for 14 consecutive years. Noticing the young drink-driving trend and locking on young people's preference, Budweiser China led its popular Harbin Beer brand to co-launch its first-ever street-style smart drinking short film starring brand ambassador Lay Zhang this year. He is also the "Shanghai Ambassador for Road Traffic Safety Awareness".

"Road traffic safety concerns everyone, and safer roads require collaboration from all walks of life," said Ding Bin, director of publicity center at the Shanghai Public Security Bureau's traffic police general brigade.

"We hope that more companies like Budweiser China will join our cause, and contribute to the development of a safe, smooth, civilized and harmonious road traffic environment in the future," Ding added.