Continental School Route Planner Wins Award as Exemplary Internet Project

HANOVER - September 9, 2008: The new “School Route Planner” [SchulwegPlaner] from Continental AG and the Lower Saxony road safety association received a very special award from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology at the IFA 2008 international consumer electronics fair in Berlin. The ministry's initiative, titled "Routes into the Web" [“Wege ins Netz”], acknowledges projects that bring people closer to the Internet. In this competition, the traffic safety project from the international automobile supplier and the Lower Saxony traffic safety association took first place amongst 139 competitors in the category "Health & nutrition" for the online platform www.schulwegplaner.de. The aim of this nationally unique Internet platform is to reduce the number of accidents involving children on their way to school. Children are the most vulnerable persons involved in traffic and are at particular risk on the streets. Every 14 minutes a child suffers a traffic accident, according to Germany’s Road Patrol division. A survey among 1,200 schoolchildren conducted by the federal “More Safety for Children” task force revealed that one in four children between grade levels five and ten had already been involved in a road accident.

Those who presented the prizes and the prize winners in category "Health & nutrition" (left to right): Silvia Decheva (Lenovo), Christoph Seitz (Microsoft), Jutta Croll (Stiftung Digitale Chancen), Peter Hintze (parliamentary state secretary), Dr.Peter Münzberg and Gabriele Schönfelder (INTERREG LIFE, 2nd place), Maria Kropshofer and Benedikt Dahm (LKGS.net, 3rd place), Ildiko Kovacs, Continental press officer, and Dr. Wolfgang Schultze, chairman of the Lower Saxony traffic safety board (School Route Planner, 1st place)

Continental Executive Board member for Human Resources, Heinz-Gerhard Wente: "We're very pleased that our efforts to make school routes safer for children have been recognized with this award. Our wish is that every schoolchild in Germany gets a navigation system for their route to school in the school route planner. In this way, we want to help identify dangers in advance and avoid accidents."

Dr. Wolfgang Schultze, Vice President of the German road safety organization: "Accidents involving children are an ongoing issue for the road safety associations. Children are at particular risk in traffic because they often do not identify dangers and are distracted. We've been promoting various different road safety campaigns for years in order to avoid accidents. We're therefore very pleased that our joint project with Continental AG has now received this award."

The award ceremony took place in relaxed surroundings from 3:30 p.m. on the ZDF stage in hall 6.2B, stand 102. The presenter Andreas Wurm – known from the pre-match program during the ZDF sports show on the UEFA EURO 2008TM soccer cup in Austria and Switzerland – presented the prize winners to the crowds of IFA visitors. The Parliamentary State Secretary Peter Hintze took part in the event, representing the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

A specialist jury had earlier selected exemplary campaigns and initiatives in six categories for this, the fifth "Routes into the Web" competition; initiatives that help raise Internet usage among the population and promote the involvement of social groups in the Internet. For five hours, the members of the jury discussed the future award winners at the Federal Ministry of Economics, before reaching their decision.

The number of Internet users in Germany is growing constantly, with the share rising from 37 percent of the population over 14 years of age to 60.2 percent in the past 7 years. Despite this, Germany is only seventh in Europe in terms of Internet usage. The "Routes into the Web" initiative was set up with the aim of providing motivation and an example to make people more enthusiastic about the Internet. Public institutions and organizations, companies, and private initiatives were all eligible for the competition.

The www.schulwegplaner.de website has also recorded increased usage from parents, teachers, and schoolchildren who are coming to the site in rising numbers to draw up a step-by-step individual school route plan, free of charge. There are now 1,285 users, 550 schools, and 63 published plans on the popular online platform.

With targeted annual sales of more than €26.4 billion in 2008, the Continental Corporation is one of the top automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of brake systems, powertrain and chassis systems and components, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tires and engineering elastomers, the company contributes to enhanced driving safety and global climate protection. Continental is also a competent partner in networked automobile communication. The company currently employs approximately 150,000 staff at almost 200 locations in 36 countries.