Toyota Motor Company Introduces New Pedestrian Traffic-safety Education Tool
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Toyota City, Japan—Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announces that
it has developed an educational tool, the "Kurapika Box", for use in its
future traffic-safety activities aimed at increasing the use of reflective
materials among pedestrians and bicycle riders to reduce nighttime
accidents. The box can be used to give simple, hands-on
demonstrations of the effectiveness of using reflective materials and the
way color affects nighttime visibility.
The box, which accurately recreates nighttime darkness and thus
overcomes the limitations of past demonstration techniques such as using
blackout curtains to create a darkened space, is lightweight, approximately
1.5 meters long and can be used indoors or outdoors. Participants use
commercially available lighted goggles to look at objects in the box that
incorporate reflective material. The light from the goggles makes the
objects easily visible, thus giving participants a thorough understanding
of the importance of using reflective materials to increase nighttime
visibility.
In Japan, the number of traffic-accident fatalities
declined in 2009 for the ninth consecutive year, falling below 4,000 for
the first time in 57 years. However, approximately half of the
fatalities were senior citizens, with approximately half of those being
pedestrians involved in accidents occurring mainly at night. TMC has
thus been engaged in an ongoing effort to help prevent traffic accidents
involving older pedestrians through such activities as distributing
leaflets during its annual Toyota Traffic Safety Campaign.
TMC will initially install boxes on a permanent basis at four
facilities, where they will be used in traffic-safety education for senior
citizens. In addition, TMC will publicize the benefits of using
reflective materials among all age groups at events held by TMC, dealers
and affiliates.
TMC has reaffirmed its commitment to customer
safety as its top priority, based on the view that realizing a society free
of traffic casualties requires an integrated approach encompassing people,
cars and the traffic environment. Accordingly, this year TMC will
again be actively implementing a variety of traffic-safety awareness
activities.
Planned Permanent
Installation Facilities
| 1. Toyota Driving School Tokyo (Tachikawa City, Tokyo): driving school directly managed by TMC | |
| 2. Chubu Nippon Driver School (Nagoya City, Aichi): driving school directly managed by TMC | |
| The boxes will be used in classes senior citizens must take for driver-license renewal and in courses for general students. | |
| 3. Toyota Safety Education Center "mobilitas" (Fuji Speedway, Shizuoka) | |
| The boxes will be permanently installed for use in prefectural courses (under contract from Shizuoka Prefecture) for senior citizens and for use by the general public. | |
| 4. Toyota City Traffic Safety Learning Center (Toyota City, Aichi) | |
| The boxes will be used for monthly events for the general public and some hands-on demonstrations. | |
Outline of "Kurapika Box" Traffic-safety Educational Tool
Materials