Bhubaneswar, November, 2019– As a crusader of road safety, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today launched its thirteenth ‘Toyota Driving School’ in India. Toyota Driving School, a one-of-its-kind in the country is in sync with the company’s safety mission of ‘Safest Car with Safest Driver’ and aims at making every student a responsible and safe driver. Managed by Toyota’s dealer partner in Bhubaneswar- Espirit Toyota, this is the company’sfirst driving school in the state of Odisha.

The inaugural ceremony of the Driving School was graced by Chief Guest, Mr. Sanjeeb Panda, Transport Commissioner, State Transport Authority, Odisha, Mr. Sunil Taneja, Managing Director, Espirit Toyota, Bhubaneswar,Mr. N Raja, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor along with dignitaries from Espirit Toyota and TKM.

In line with its vision of Zero Fatalities for future India, TKM has successfully launched twelve other driving schools across the country at Kochi, Lucknow, Hyderabad Two driving schools], Chennai [Two driving schools], Kolkata, Faridabad, Vijayawada, Surat, Mumbai and Palakkad with an enrollment of 8500 plus students till date.   The company aims to open 50 Toyota Driving Schools in next five years,asserting their traffic safety commitment louder.

The training module integrates technical expertise along with enhancing behavioral skills to create awareness about safety nationwide. The curriculum is a comprehensive driver training program that boosts of high quality, practical and futuristic training models. It broadly covers the following topics:

1.      Traffic management, rules and discipline

2.      Safe and right driving concepts

3.      Manners and responsibilities of a driver

4.      Simulation of driving on real vehicle before getting onto road

5.      All aspects of practical driving on road

6.      Driving on various road and climate conditions

7.      Know your car – Basic maintenance and repairs

8.      Emergency handling

9.      Systematic evaluation and feedback

Commenting on the launch of Toyota Driving School in Bhubaneswar,Sunil Taneja, Managing Director, Espirit Toyotasaid,“We are proud to partner with Toyota Kirloskar Motor in its sustained efforts of creating a saferdriving ecosystem in the country. Being the capital city of the state and a centre of economic, educational and cultural importance of East India, Bhubaneswar brings with it the issues of growing population and rising density of vehicles, making road safety a challenge. Safety has always been top priority for Toyota, the company has set a benchmark in the industry for being the first manufacturer to have standardizeddual SRS airbags, Antilock Braking System (ABS) with EBD across all models and all grades.We are confident that with Toyota’s expertise in the subject of road safety alongwith professional trainers and a comprehensive curriculum, we would be able to inculcate a responsible driving behavior amongst the people in our city. This will help us significantly contribute towards reducing road mishaps due to driver faults.”

Sharing his views on Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s commitment to the safety mission, Mr. N. Raja - Deputy Managing Director - Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “As safety leaders, it is our primary mission to ensure safest cars with safest drivers to reduce traffic accidents in the country. As per records, more than 150,000 people are killed each year in traffic accidents here in India; that’s about 400 fatalities a day and far higher than developed auto markets like the US. As per Govt. records, accident deaths in Orissa have increased by 13 percent in the first five months (January-May) of 2019 compared to the corresponding period of 2018. Drivers Fault accounts for more than 75% of total road accidents. Over-speeding, drunken driving, not wearing helmets, not wearing seatbelts, not following lane discipline are very common causes of road mishaps.  With the launch of the first Toyota Driving School here in Bhubaneswar, we aim to set a benchmark in quality driving training and ensure each student portrays as a safety brand ambassador to enrich the safety culture across the city.”

He further added, “We would like to thank our dealer partner – Espirit Toyota, who have collaborated with usin setting up this state-of-the-art driving school in Bhubaneswar. We are closely working with various stakeholders to create a society with safer mobility.”

A unique initiative by TKM, Toyota Driving School focuses on making every student a responsible and safe driver, with futuristic training modules coupled with world class technology through extensive training offered by professional trainers comprising of theoretical and practical training. Through this initiative, Toyota aims to bring down the rising number of road mishaps in the country thus striving to ensure a safer road behaviour.

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.

Besides, 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. 

In pursuance of its deep-rooted safety mission, Toyota Kirloskar Motor has been carrying out Road Safety initiatives since 2005 through various pan India campaigns.  Apart from the commitment to building the safest cars, the company has an all - encompassing Safety Program to address road safety challenges in India. As a safety leader, Toyota initiated the Toyota Safety Education Program (TSEP) in 2007 which 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. Toyota has educated more than 7,10,000 school children on road safety across India until now as part of “Toyota Safety Education Program”.

Safety Programmes by TKM

Toyota Safety Education Programme (TSEP): TKM pioneers in implementing the road safety program and having launched in 2007, this year marks the 12^th anniversary of the Toyota Safety Education Programme (TSEP) implementation. Till date, TSEP has covered more than 740,000 across India bringing about a positive change in the behavior as road users. Additionally, Toyota is working with various stakeholders including – school, business partners and police to take this initiative to a larger audience.

Team Toyota Activity (TTA): 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.

 Road Safety Hackathon: Under its Hackathon initiative, Toyota invites and incubates soft ideas of young minds to 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 and unleash the hidden talents, provides a platform for young minds towards “India Road Safety Mission”.

 As part of its CSR interventions, TKM also encourages its employees to voluntarily contribute to the cause of Road Safety by building basic road safety requirements and installing: Sign Boards, Solar Blinkers, Cat Eye Reflectors, Convex Mirrors at turns etc. at prime locations to avoid road-related risks as a preventive measure and enable good road infrastructure.

 Toyota remains committed as a safety leader and will continue 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.