Celebrities interact with students at the DPS Chandrasekharpur to creat traffic awareness. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 4: City police today organised an innovative road safety campaign in the capital by unveiling a zebra mascot aimed at creating traffic norms’ awareness especially among students.

The campaign was organised in association with the Forum for Prevention of Road Accidents (FPRA), an NGO from the state, and OrgPEOPLE, a Kerala based NGO.

The Pappu Zebra Road Sense Campaign was launched at the DAV Public School in Chandrashekharpur in the presence of Oriya film stars and eminent sports personalities like Dilip Tirkey and Anuradha Biswal.

The purpose of the campaign was to inculcate and develop a sense of responsibility among the students about obeying traffic rules. “The children are the future of the society. If they have a good of sense of traffic rules then roads will be truly safe,” said B.K. Sharma, commissioner of police.

Road accidents have become a major cause of concern in the city. While India accounts for highest number of traffic accidents in the world, the number of such mishaps in the state and city is also growing steadily. The National Crime Records Bureau revealed that 1.26 lakh people in India have lost their lives in 4.21 lakh road accidents in 2009. The statistics also showed that at least 14 people die every hour in road accidents in the country.

The first of its kind campaign in the state — the Pappu Zebra Road Sense Campaign — thrilled school students as a booklet containing funny stories about the theme icon, Pappu zebra were distributed among students.

The booklet contained ten stories on road safety rules. According to Bikash Mohapatra, secretary of FPRA, these booklets would be an interesting reading for children as well as adults and help them know traffic and road safety rules better. “We hope the stories will touch the children, and make them better informed,” said Mohapatra.

The awareness campaign that started today at Chandrasekharpur would cover 50 schools in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

“We expect around 50,000 people, mostly the school children, to be aware of traffic rules through this programme,” said a traffic policeman.