The
Land Transport Authority is pleased to announce that it has strengthened its
partnership with Merchant Finance after the financial institution renewed its
commitment to assist the Authority in creating awareness on road safety and
thereby helping reduce accidents and incidents on our roads.
In 2015, the parties had signed a short term sponsorship agreement to increase awareness
on road safety in Fiji. The sponsorship has now been extended after the
organisations signed a long term Memorandum of Understanding this week. The MOU
was signed by Mr Naisa Tuinaceva, LTA Chief Executive Officer and Mr Napolioni
Batimala, Chief Executive Officer of Merchant Finance.
As part of the sponsorship
agreement,
some of the vehicles belonging to Merchant Finance will be partially wrapped and branded with critical road safety messages and will target all type of
road users. Last year, Merchant Finance had turned four vehicles
into moving billboards for road safety messages of which two are still running
in the western and central region.
LTA Chief Executive Officer, Mr Naisa Tuinaceva has welcomed the
sponsorship saying the MOU has encouraged the Authority to continue doing its
best in keeping our roads accident and incident free.
“We are fortunate to partner with Merchant
Finance which believes in keeping Fijians safe on our roads. We are happy that Mr
Batimala and his team have come on board as an advocate to road safety at a
time when serious road accidents and incidents are occurring almost daily. With
vehicle branding, the vehicles will be moving around the country carrying
critical road safety messages and this will certainly boost the Authority’s
current road safety campaign and education activities which are being conducted
nationwide via media advertising and school and community visits.”
Mr Batimala said: “Good image for Merchant Finance supporting LTA in raising
awareness of Road Safety Awareness. We are leading by example as financial
institution and vehicle financier.”
A
total of 15 people have died on our roads to date compared to 23 in the same
period last year. In total, 65 people lost their lives in road accidents in
2015 of which 24 were pedestrians, 25 were passengers and 15 were drivers. In
2014, 49 fatalities were recorded of which 24 were passengers, 11 were
pedestrians while 13 were drivers.
LTA is facilitating Government’s Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 initiative,
which is aimed at reducing the number of deaths on Fiji roads. Mr.
Tuinaceva has also called on the corporate sector and other organisations to
team up with the Authority and become an advocate for road safety.