Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Pappu preaches road sense

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “I am not a donkey to talk on the mobile phone while driving,” says Pappu the Zebra, the official mascot of the road safety awareness drive planned by the State Police Department.

Pappu is a cartoon character modelled on a candid school student with high civic sense, says Inspector-General of Police, Traffic, B. Sandhya. Artist Nandan Pillai of Thrissur created the character.

Pappu symbolises the best practices of safe road behaviour. On his way to school, Pappu encounters different characters on the road. One is the whisky-swigging ‘Uncle Zebra’ who represents the hazards of drunk driving. “Where does drinking and driving take you? To death or hell?” Pappu asks him.

Kerala has one of the highest accident rates in the country. Nearly 4,000 road users were killed in accidents in 2008. As many as 36,000 people were seriously injured in road accidents the same year.

The police believe the accident rate can be brought down considerably by constantly reminding road users, mainly the youth, to observe traffic rules. It has roped in cell phone service providers for sending text messages (ones emphasising the need to follow traffic rules) to their subscribers regularly.

The police have written to public sector concerns, including petroleum companies and the Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation, to carry traffic safety awareness messages on the bills issued to the public.

It is also planning to make road safety-related short animation films featuring Pappu to be aired on television channels. The police are preparing a road safety-based theme song to be aired on FM channels. Famed Hindi lyricist Javed Akhtar had penned a road safety awareness theme song for the Mumbai Police recently. The police are hoping that some big names in the Malayalam music industry would help them create a catchy song for their road safety campaign.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

GTech adopts HIV/AIDS policy
Students redesign vehicle for KAL
VS to convene meet on saving Akkulam Lake
Selected for award
Joint venture hotel project at Bekal
Elected chairman
Engineers’ demand
Suspended
Increase in paddy procurement
Pappu preaches road sense
Engineering students redesign vehicle for KAL
All arrangements in place for counting of votes
Assault: case against 27 lawyers

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu