Toyota Kirloskar Motor[TKM] augments its SAFETY mission, inaugurates first driving school in Maharashtra [Mumbai]

 [Through its integrated safety approach – TKM collaborates with its dealer partner, launches Toyota Driving School at Lakozy Toyota, Mumbai]

Toyota’s eleventh driving school in India, first in Maharashtra – Mumbai& second in west region after Lucknow By 2020, TKM plans to launch 50 Toyota Driving School across India Promotes “Drive Right, Drive Safe” culture on roads in support of National Safety Mission Till date, Toyota Driving School has successfully enrolled 5,800 plus students with more than 20,000 enquiries [nation-wide]Aims to instill safety sense amongst drivers to bring a behavioral change on safe driving, developing change agents to further campaign ‘Safety’ at large scale with an aim to attain “Zero Fatality” mission

Mumbai, January 29^th, 2019– Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today announced the launch of the “Toyota Driving School” in Mumbai, in pursuance of its safety mission of ‘Safest Car with Safest Driver’. Managed by one of the Toyota’s dealerships – Lakozy Toyota, being the company’s first Driving School in Maharashtra, Mumbai and Eleventh in India.

The Toyota Driving School launch was graced by Chief Guest Mr. Hemant Patil, Assistant Regional Transport Officer – Andheri, Mumbaiin the presence of Mr. Amar Pawar, Dealer Principal – Lakozy Toyota, along with the senior management of Toyota Kirloskar Motor represented Mr. N. Raja, Deputy Managing Director.

To improve road safety culture in the country, Toyota Kirloskar Motor has launched ten other driving schools across India at Kochi, Lucknow, Hyderabad [2 driving schools], Chennai [2 driving schools], Kolkata, Faridabad, Vijayawada and Surat aligning with theToyota’s safety mission.

Being a part of company’s vision on SAFETY, Toyota Driving School one of its kind in the country, extreme importance on making every student a responsible and safe driver. The curriculum will be a comprehensive driver training program that will boast of high quality, practical and futuristic training models like the driver simulator mechanism which is expected to deliver the “Etios Experience”. To make this experience as realistic as possible, Toyota has incorporated features like Instrument Panel (IP), Steering, and Seats of an actual Etios car.

The curriculum will comprehensively cover the following topics:

 Traffic management, rules and disciplineSafe and right driving conceptsManners and responsibilities of a driverSimulation of driving on real vehicle before getting onto roadAll aspects of practical driving on roadDriving on various road and climate conditionsKnow your car – Basic maintenance and repairsEmergency handlingSystematic evaluation and feedback

Commenting on this new Toyota Driving School launch,Mr. Amar Pawar, Dealer Principal – Lakozy Toyota said,“It is a privilege for us to be associated with Toyota Kirloskar Motor in contributing towards improving road safety in Mumbai and playing an active role in their endeavor to promote good driving habits amongst citizens. Increasing population and rising traffic in urban areas has compromised on road safety, leading to increase in road accidents.The steady rise in the number of road mishaps in the city is an issue that needs to be addressed promptly and with our driving schools we take on the onus of educating our citizens on achieving the ultimate safety mission of zero accidents.

We believe that Toyota Driving School with Toyota’s world-class know-how, professional trainers and a comprehensive curriculum, will be able to inculcate a safer and cautious driving behavior amongst the people in our city.”

 Speaking at the occasion Mr. N Raja – Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “In our continuous efforts to make road safety a habit among commuters, we are delighted to launch our first driving school in Maharashtra, Mumbai. As per the latest statistics, in India, more than 150,000 people are killed each year in traffic accidents. That’s about 400 fatalities a day and primary reason of road accidents are poor road safety practices.  Road safety goes beyond the transport sector, with a direct impact on public health, societies, and economies. Road traffic crashes cost most countries 3% of their gross domestic product.

Road safety is an inherently cross-sectoral issue, real progress can only happen if all relevant stakeholders unite their efforts. As safety leaders in the industry, it is our primary mission to ensure safest cars with safest drivers in the country and significantly reduce the traffic accidents with our safety initiatives.

We at Toyota have established Driving Schools across the country, in line with our mission of ‘Safest Car with Safest Driver’. Toyota Driving Schools are of one of its kind in the country that focus on making every student a responsible and safe driver. With futuristic training modules coupled with world class technology, extensive training offered by professional trainers and an all-encompassing curriculum comprising of theoretical-practical sessions of high standards, we aim to develop responsible road users who shall be the change agents in promoting road safety to the larger society.

sides, the simulator also has several credits, it is the first car simulator in India with Full High Definition Computer graphics in an immersive Curved Projection environment, and it is the first simulator in India with real complete car cabin along with actual car gear. In addition, it also offers extensive local language support for effective training and extensive sessions for both novice and advance drivers.Through these driving schools, we aim to bring down the rising number of road mishaps in the country caused majorly due to human error.

We would like to thank our dealer partner – Lakozy Toyota, who has associated with us in setting up this state-of-the art driving school infrastructure in Mumbai. We are confident that our Toyota Driving School will set a new standard for quality driving and traffic safety.”he added.

 The simulator, a key part of the teaching program, is expected to provide hands on experience. Learners can practice all car controls like steering, accelerator, brake and gear shift before they take the actual vehicle on the road. The simulators can also create various road and weather conditions like fog, dim light, uphill and downhill terrain. While there will be a standard learning package for beginners, ‘Toyota Driving School’ will also offer the flexibility of additional learning modules so that learners can design a curriculum of their choice.

The Toyota Driving School has till date enrolled 5,800 plus students. By 2020 the company plans to cross 50 such schools across India, voicing their traffic safety commitment louder.

Safety has been the DNA of Toyota and of prime importance. TKM follows an integrated safety approach towards addressing the grave issues of road safety in our country, aiming to build a safer community by adopting 3-dimensional concepts namelyManufacturing Safe Cars, Developing Safe Drivers & Building Safer Environment.

Safe Drive:TKM started the awareness program on road safety to school children from 2007 onwards towardscreating responsible road users[be it a driver or pedestrian] anddevelop them as change agents to influence the society’s road behavior in a broader sense. Many road safety interventions are being implemented in a phased manner, namely:

Initiated Toyota Safety Education Program (TSEP since 2007) – aims at educating school children and teachers through phase wise approach on important aspects of road safety and eventually passing on the learning to the general public. Under this program, Toyota has educated more than 7,00,000 school children on road safety across India until now

Team Toyota Activity (TTA) educates and sensitizes school children, teachers, parents and school bus drivers on responsible safety habits and ensure a safer traffic environment for the next generation. Aims at creating Safety Ambassadors in schools by creating Safety zone & Safety Park within school, implementing an interactive learning program [TSEP], training of school vehicle drivers and creation of safety group in the school, launched six safety model schools until now, enabling children to gain the practical experience to follow road rules

Toyota’s piolet project namely Road Safety Hackathon where more than 90 schools from the Delhi-NCR took part with over 300 registered teams covering 600 students’ participation. Under its Hackathon initiative, Toyota invites & incubates soft ideas of young mindsto drive the road safety mission with an ultimate goal of achieving “Zero Fatality”, covering Grades 9th – 12th in association with Indian Road Safety Campaign [IRSC – an NGO formed by IIT students]. Key focus to motivate & unleash the hidden talents, provides a platform for young minds towards “India Road Safety Mission”. The focus was on 3 dimensional themes – Educate on Driver Behavior, Enforcement on Fraud Detection & Infrastructure to build bad roads

TKM conductedDriver Training Programs & Health Check-Up Camps for Airport taxi drivers in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi International Airport since 2014, on road safety awareness with over 5,000 drivers participating in the campaign till date. Through this initiative Toyota aims at creating a strong road safety sense amongst the driversand encourage them to adopt safer driving practices.

Safest Cars: The recently launched Toyota Yaris is the first car in its segment to offer 7 SRS airbags – (D+P airbags, Side airbags, Curtain Shield Airbags (CSA) and knee airbag) across all its variants. Combined with other best- in-class safety features such as Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD), Vehicle Stability Control, Hill Start Assist control & ISOFIX Child Seats, we yet again set new safety benchmark in the Indian car industry. Testament to its unbeaten safety features, Toyota Yaris recently received 5-star safety ratings from the New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN NCAP). Etios was presented with

SaferEnvironment: Some of the company’s CSR interventions, engages its employees – voluntarily contributing to the cause of Road Safety [under one of its key CSR pillars]. Under its recent road safety initiative, the employees built basic road safety requirements in prime road junctions of Bangalore city with a view to avoid road related risks as a preventive measure by enabling good road infrastructure through installation of road safety – Sign Boards, Solar Blinkers, Cat Eyes Reflectors, Convex Mirrors at turns, etc.

Toyota remains committed as Safety Leader and will continues its safety journey to become the most admired company by offerings best-in-class safety technology through its products and further promote safety culture in the society via varied road safety campaigns in the nation.