Keep Life Onside: Club initiative to promote safe driving in Municipio VIII

Following the success of the previous two editions – involving over 200 final-year students from six Roman high schools, with Roma men's and women's Primavera players taking part – this time it was three schools from Rome Municipality VIII to benefit from the theoretical and practical lessons on road safety. The aim is to help reduce the devastating toll from the near 13,000 road accidents that take place every year on the streets of Rome, resulting in over 150 deaths and 16,000 injuries.

The proceedings began with an introduction from Municipality VIII President Amedeo Ciaccheri, AS Roma Chief Football Operating Officer Maurizio Lombardo and Toyota Business Developer and Communication Specialist Massimiliano Rossi.  

“The Friedkin family has always tried to maintain club initiatives with a big social impact like this,” Maurizio Lombardo told the students. “Safety has always been a matter of primary importance for AS Roma: from organising training sessions to the equipment used at the training ground and encouraging our young academy players to drive safely when they obtain their driving licence. Thanks to the support of our generous partners, we are happy to be able to involve many more youngsters from Roman schools and nurture a greater sense of responsibility when they sit behind the wheel."

Around 150 students from three local high schools (Socrate, Giovanni Keplero and Pacinotti-Archimede) took part in two hours of interactive theory lessons held at the Municipality VIII Arcipelago library in Via Benedetto Croce. 

Valerio Vella of ACI Ready2Go began with a simple statistic: humans are responsible for 95% of all road accidents (the car and the streets being the cause in the remaining 5%). The lesson covered some of the basic principles of safe driving which can help prevent accidents: speed limits, active and passive safety, ADAS devices, and advice on how to stay focused behind the wheel. 

Vella was joined by journalist Luca Valdiserri, father of Francesco, who was just 18 when he was run over and killed by an out-of-control car in October 2022 while he was walking along the pavement with friends in Via Cristoforo Colombo. 

Vella and Valdiserri struck a chord with the youngsters and managed to hold their attention by motivating them to think, be self-critical and adopt a more responsible approach to driving.

Toyota and KINTO – AS Roma's Mobility Service Provider – supplied two Yaris Crosses and Aygo Xs for the practical session run by ACI Ready2Go trainers in the parking area provided by VIII Municipio. Here they were taught the correct driving position and experienced dynamic slaloms to understand the effect of understeer and oversteer, the use of ABS and some obstacle-avoidance exercises on a surface with poor traction.

“With this third edition of Tieni in gioco la vita, Automobile Club Roma – alongside AS Roma – has renewed its commitment to road safety by running theoretical and practical courses for students of driving-licence age to increase awareness of responsible, conscious behaviour on the roads,” said Automobile Club Roma president Giuseppina Fusco.

 “I'd like to thank Rome Municipality VIII for offering concrete aid to the project by providing the rooms and spaces to carry out the training activities and test drives. This collaboration strengthens integration between public institutions with the common goal of ensuring safety on our roads.”

As with the previous editions, at the end of the morning Luca Valdiserri took part in the handing over of the cheque from the fund set up by AS Roma and named after his son Francesco to support the running of the course in the next academic year for the three schools involved.

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