OPET was found worthy of the gold prize by the International Stevie Awards, which evaluate the performance of the business world, with its Traffic Detectives Project. OPET, which had previously won five prizes in the Stevie Awards with different projects, registered its achievement once more in the international arena. OPET Board of Director's Founder Member Nurten Öztürk, who gave a speech prior to the award ceremony organized in Barcelona, said “We intend to continue this change we created on this path, which we set off with the Clean Toilet Campaign, with the Traffic Detectives Project until our country becomes a country where traffic is safe."
OPET, which operates with the vision to contribute in the formation of a more aware public by staking claims on education, health, environment and historical assets, was found worthy of two gold prizes by the International Stevie Awards organization with its Traffic Detectives Project. Within the scope of the award program that was organized for the 14th time this year, the Europe-Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year and Europe-Health, Safety and Environment Program of the Year Gold Prizes were given to the Traffic Detectives Project, aiming to instill awareness and consciousness in children and teenagers in the field of traffic safety. The prizes were presented to OPET Board of Directors' Founder Member Nurten Öztürk, who is acknowledged as a pioneer in Turkey with respect to 'Corporate Social Responsibility', at the ceremony organized in W Hotel Barcelona on Saturday, October 21st.
According to the data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs General Directorate of Security for the period between 2013 and 2016, covering the first implementation phase of the project, while mortality was reduced by 16.9 percent in traffic accidents where children and teenagers of 3-17 years of age were involved, there has been a decrease of 16.7 percent in mortality and 3.6% in the number of those who were injured, when the June-September period in 2017 was compared with the same period in 2016. This positive change has been the major factor that was influential for the project to be found worthy of the Europe-Corporate Responsibility Program of the Year award. OPET also won the Europe-Health, Safety and Environment Program of the Year Gold Prize with this comprehensive public safety program that embraced the whole society, all together with the children, teenagers and their families, in order to provide a safe traffic environment.
OPET Board of Directors Founder Member Nurten Öztürk:
“We Set Examples for the Society by our Consistent Projects”
Nurten Öztürk, who stated that she evaluates the realization of projects that create social benefit as the most important duty, in the speech she made prior to the ceremony, expressed the pride she feels with these awards that their projects were found worthy of as follows:
“We set examples for the society, create a difference and instill courage by our consistent social responsibility projects that we implement considering the needs of our country. First of all, I believe that our country and our country's people deserve the best and think that we have responsibilities to our country. We never thought commercially in any work we were involved in, although we are a company that operates commercially. All social responsibility projects under which we appended our signature were projects aimed for both the past, the present and the future, embracing the society, and aimed for the solving of the needs, facilitating the lives of the people, and we have accessed more than 20 million people so far. We intend to continue this change we created on this path, which we set off with the Clean Toilet Campaign, with the Traffic Detectives Project until traffic is safe in our country. We are delighted to raise traffic awareness throughout Turkey with the 'Traffic Detectives Project' we have been conducting together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs General Directorate of Security, Ministry of Family and Social Policies, Ministry of National Education, Directorate of Religious Affairs and Police Spouses Association for four years. Trainings were and continue to be given in the schools in 81 provinces of Turkey, all Koran Courses affiliated with the Directorate of Religious Affairs, Love Homes affiliated with the Ministry of Family and Social Policies, shopping malls, traffic parks, in short in all areas where we can reach children and teenagers. We are delighted to raise awareness regarding traffic safety in almost 3.5 million students by entertaining and interactive trainings. On the other hand, we created a difference by distributing more than 5 million brochures and duty cards through our pump officials at our stations and thanks to the police officers who were on duty on the highways during the holiday periods when traffic was dense. We brought a new expansion in our project last year and initiated the “Life Belt” application. We drew attention to the vital significance of wearing the seatbelts, through our pump officials in all our stations in Turkey in general and took care to ensure that people did not leave our stations without wearing their seatbelts. With the “Life Belt Project" that is a sub-item in the Traffic Detectives Project; we continue to remind all drivers and passengers on the importance of the seatbelts.”
OPET aims to raise the awareness of adults, as well as children and teenagers, with this project that is intended to make trips pleasant and safe. Due to the fact that the seatbelts connect those who are in the vehicle to life and their loves ones in case of a potential accident, OPET now calls the seatbelt, which is a concept that has become desensitized by the society, the “Life Belt”. Within this context, it is ensured that each customer that comes to OPET stations is seen off by saying 'Please put on your life belt' and to keep this on the public agenda by the communication activities and publicity films that are prepared. It is aimed to transform this expression into a movement that will cover all of Turkey and increase the use of seatbelts that is 47 percent today, to the levels of 70 percent.
