10 ‘Nap and Go’ Rest Spots Are Now Available For Fatigued Drivers

Since fatigue driving is one of the main reasons behind road crashes, we initiated the concept of stopping the car at a safe spot and resting before continuing to drive. A ten-minute power nap is sufficient enough to keep someone alert to drive for around 45 minutes hence ten rest spot areas labeled as “Nap & Go” have been installed in Medco Gasoline Stations and are sponsored by Picon. The spots are located along the coast and mountains where fatigued drivers can take a nap before continuing to drive.

These rest spots are advertised with a special rest road sign 300 meters ahead of the gasoline station, a large backlit sign in the gasoline station, and reflective markings on the road designating the parking spot for one car. There is camera surveillance at most of the stations where the spots are located in addition to employees who are present 24/7.

 

Kunhadi’s New Wedding Service in Partnership with Flügen Rides

Kunhadi offers a wedding-customized taxi service, where we provide professional taxi service to guests who plan ahead on taking a taxi, as well as professional chauffeurs for other guests who take their cars to the wedding but find themselves unable to drive back home.

The service includes placing cars with extra drivers at the exit of the venue for anyone who wishes to use the cabs/drivers. Flugen Driver is certified by Kunhadi after having completed a taxi training revolved around the Lebanese traffic law, safe driving and professional customer service.

What made this initiative drive a real change of behavior among people was that it offered brides and grooms the chance to extend to their guests the opportunity to arrive and leave the wedding safely. Moreover, young event organizers and wedding planners started asking Kunhadi for assistance to include taxis in weddings.

Our drivers are always smartly dressed and have excellent customer service skills. You’ll find the ride smooth, comfortable and relaxing leaving you in a perfect state of mind to tie the knot.

We offer the highest standard of wedding taxi service available anywhere in the Lebanon so you can be rest assured that you are getting the best possible service available.

 

RODGE Joins Kunhadi’s Board of Trustees

Kunhadi is proud to announce RODGE as its “Road Safety Advocate”.

Being a huge supporter of Kunhadi’s cause since Taxi Night inception in 2007, RODGE has already supported Kunhadi in several Taxi Night events and road safety radio campaigns.

Today, RODGE will be joining Kunhadi’s Board of Trustees as an active and accomplished member of our community who shares Kunhadi’s vision and drive to actively improve the quality of Nightlife in Lebanon for tomorrow’s generation.

Owing to his wide social circle, experience, and involvement in the open source community, we believe he will be an Invaluable Asset to our organization, supporting our mission, dedication, and integrity.

Kunhadi Launches Nightclubs and Pubs Pillar of Save the Night During its 11th Anniversary

Kunhadi launched the Nightclubs and Pubs Pillar of “Save The Night” project during its 11^th anniversary, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and the The Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Cafés, Night-Clubs & Pastries in Lebanon.

“Save The Night” project aims to improve night venues’ safety, decrease car crashes happening at night and reduce underage drinking. It engages nightlife stakeholders in youth safety by providing their staff members with specialized trainings enabling them to create a safer environment for young partygoers.

Kunhadi will be awarding a “Save The Night-2018” label to nightclubs whose staff members complete Kunhadi trainings and meet the safety requirements stated in the Nightclub Code created by Kunhadi in collaboration with the Ministry of tourism and the partnership of the Syndicate of Night Clubs. Failing to abide by the requirements results in the removal of the label from the nightclub.

The safety requirements include ensuring no entrance for underage people, no counterfeit alcohol and refusing to continue serving alcohol to intoxicated clients, guaranteeing secure taxi entrance, having an insurance license, being equipped with fire extinguishers and first aid kit, and reducing the music volume as required by law.

Save The Night Project

The World Health Organization estimated road traffic fatalities in Lebanon in 2013 to be more than 1,000, making road traffic crashes the leading cause of death among youth aged between 15 and 29 years. The estimated cost of road traffic crashes exceeds USD 2 billion annually, which represents around 5% of the Gross Domestic Product.

Renowned for its vibrant nightlife, Lebanon was featured on CNN in 2009 where Beirut was described as “The Best Party City in the world”. In 2004, 2005, and 2006, famous nightclubs in Beirut were featured as the best nightclubs around the world by Wallpaper magazine, and in 2011, three Lebanese nightclubs were listed among DJ mag’s Top 100 clubs.

Despite Lebanon’s active nightlife, there aren’t any laws nor any form of regulation to keep it safe. Public health policies and laws preventing harmful consumption of alcohol are radically lacking.
A myriad of problems arose as a result, many involving underage alcohol consumption and intoxication, fatal drunk driving collisions, violence incidences, etc.
Save the Night (STN) will be the solution to these problems.

Save The Night

Save The Night (STN) is a multi-disciplinary sustainable project that will promote Safer Nightlife in Lebanon. It is a unique project worldwide that was officially launched during the celebration of Kunhadi’s 10th Anniversary on November 10, 2016.

It will improve the safety of nightlife venues and services, raise awareness on the risks of driving under the influence of alcohol, raise awareness on fatigue driving, discourage underage and harmful consumption of alcohol and engage youth in improving their communities.

Save The Night is comprised of 4 pillars:

 

 

Pillar 1 – Raising Nightlife safety standards

“Save the Night” label is being awarded to nightclubs and valet parking personnel after having completed a series of training offered by Kunhadi Road Safety Academy to ensure their practices and service meet safety requirements.

In order to follow-up on services of labeled companies, a mobile application has been created to permit customers to rate their service and provide feedback.

Pillar 2 – Improving taxi service

Awarding “Save the Night” label to taxi drivers after completing Kunhadi training to meet safety requirements.

A mobile application has been created to connect customers and labeled taxi drivers. The app will also allow labeled valet parking companies to order a free taxi for people too intoxicated to drive.

Pillar 3 – Fatigue Driving

Ten Rest Spot areas “Nap & Go” have been installed in Medco Gasoline Stations sponsored by Picon along the coast and mountains where fatigued drivers can take a nap before continuing to drive.

These Rest Spots are advertised with a special Rest Road Sign 300 meters ahead of the gasoline station, a large backlit sign in the gasoline station, and reflective markings on the road designating the parking spot for one car.

Pillar 4 – Changing perception of the use of taxis and making it more appealing

Series of campaigns and promotional TV spots were created to change the perception of safe driving and responsible partying from negative “coward” to positive “cool” and change the perception of the drunk driver from “macho” to “stupid”.

 

 

Kunhadi at the 2nd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety

Government ministers and their partners in key decision-making roles from all over the world are gathering for the second time in history in the Second Global Conference on Road Safety to address enhancing road safety around the world.

The first Global Conference on Road Safety was held in Moscow in 2009, where Kunhadi was the only delegate from Lebanon, and led to the implementation of the Decade for Action on Road Safety 2011-2020, a ten-year action plan to halve the number of traffic victims globally. 

The conference that will take place on November 18 and 19 in Brazilia, will gather around 1500 delegates from more than 100 countries, including ministers of health transportation and interior, senior officials from the United Nations agencies, representatives of civil society and business leaders to review the progress in the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, define the next steps at global and national levels, and set a milestone in road safety. 

 

The need for results is made even stronger after Road Safety targets have been included in the new Sustainable Development Goalsadopted by UN members in August 2015. 

 

Main topics will include:

– the improvement of law enforcement on road safety
– the improvement of roads and safe infrastructures
– the enhancement of vehicles safety
– the enhancement of emergency trauma care systems for traffic victims

Kunhadi, represented by its Vice President Mrs. Lena Gebrane, is the only Lebanese organization participating in the Second Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety.

Kunhadi 9th Anniversary

Hazmieh
4/11/2015

Kunhadi celebrated its ninth anniversary on November 4, 2015 at Hazmieh Municipality, in the presence of a number of political and social figures, the media and Mr. and Miss Lebanon.

Kunhadi celebrated its ninth anniversary with the launch of the first Taxi Academy in Lebanon.

The celebration was held in the Municaplity of Hazmieh, in the presence of political and media figures, in addition to Mr. and Miss Lebanon 2015 who joined in support of the organization and the cause of road safety in Lebanon.

Kunhadi lawyer esq. Mark Habka commended Kunhadi on the relentless effort to spread road safety awareness for the past nine years through
campaigns and events based on the Lebanese Traffic Law, the previous formerly and the new currently.

Ms. Marie Claude Hajjar, M&C Saatchi representative
and Kunhadi’s Account Director, recounted the agency and Kunhadi’s long-standing partnership whereby M&C Saatchi was Kunhadi’s voice that transmitted its road safety messages all the way to people’s subconscious
and changed the widespread passive Lebanese driving culture that blamed roads and laws for the chaos, to a better understanding of road user behavior and responsibility. The agency helped Kunhadi offer youngsters an alternative to drunk driving through the Taxi Night party with the slogan “Drink moderately and take a taxi back home”.

Kunhadi president, Mr. Fady Gebrane, began his speech by reminding the audience that according to the World Health Organization (WHO) 1,5 Million people die yearly due to traffic crashes that are currently the number one cause of death of young people aged between 15 and 29 years worldwide, and unless serious action is taken, the toll of victims worldwide will rise to 1,9 million yearly.

In Lebanon, the second cause of fatal crashes is driving under the influence of alcohol. Accordingly, Kunhadi launched the “Taxi Night” initiative back in 2007, which is a party where all guests arrive and leave the party venue by two-way Taxis offered for free by Kunhadi. Eight years later, the culture of taking a Taxi after a night out is diffused among the Lebanese community, however, Kunhadi still receives complaints about taxi drivers ‘driving habits.

So, this year, the road safety organization decided on launching a Taxi Academy to train Taxi drivers on the New Traffic Law, defensive driving (anticipating dangerous situations and preventing collisions), first aid and professional customer service with a special focus on difficult customers.

The objective of the project is to improve the quality of the Taxi service and reinforce the community’s trust in it by making it a truly reliable alternative to driving.

Kunhadi’s trainers already received three trainings from international road safety trainers specialized in Taxi in addition to first-aid training by the Red Cross.

Mr. Gebrane proceeded to list Kunhadi’s main achievements for 2015 that included:

1- Acting on behalf of the Lebanese government to protect the safety of pedestrians by installing safe crossings in front of schools (two safe crossings this year and thirteen in total since 2011), to provide students with a safe point to cross the road, despite the absence or the slacking of support from government officials to approve these projects.

2- Starting a pioneer project entitled “Target Zero” in Maghdoushe (South of Lebanon) that aims to reduce traffic fatalities to 0.Kunhadi is installing solar-powered street lights, safe crossings with speed bumps to secure a point on the road where pedestrians can cross the road safety, retro-reflecting markings and road signs, road markings. Maghdoushe Municipality, who is collaborating with Kunhadi on this project, stationed a fully equipped ambulance close to the town center, and over 12 volunteers will always be available to assist any traffic potential victim.

3- Regularly participating in international campaigns seminars, latest of which was the Club Health 2015 held in Portugal on the most successful practices around the world to enhance the safety of nightlife and the global campaign launched by the United Nations under the title #SaveKidsLives that aims to bring road safety demands of children to the attention of local and global leaders. That in addition to 150 road safety conferences Kunhadi hosted around Lebanon, reaching over 14,000 people during 2015 alone.

4- Receiving the “Highly Commended” certificate during Fleet Safety Awards 2015 – Brake Charity (UK) for the ‘Taxi Night’ initiative that raises awareness against drunk driving. Kunhadi was the only organization based in Middle East and North Africa that was nominated for this award, competing against international companies listed in New York and/or London stock markets.

5- Presenting short 15-minutes sketches on TV explaining the New Traffic Law

Kunhadi stresses that the New Traffic Law cannot be correctly implemented before the National Council for Road Safety is fully activated.

The road safety organization also refers to the Months of April and May 2015 when the speed law was very strictly implemented and lead to a 70% of traffic crashes, over 60% decrease of injuries and 40% of traffic fatalities, to remind the audience that by only respecting the speed limits, we could achieve a dramatic change on our roads.

Taxi Night 15th Edition

The 15th Edition of Kunhadi Taxi Night took place on August 11 at Train Station – Mar Mkhael, sponsored by Bank of Beirut, Diageo and Zaatar W Zeit and in collaboration with Ihjoz.

A number of public figures and celebrities, including Serge Asmar, Joe Maalouf, Bruno Tabbal, Aline Lahoud, Joseph Attieh, May Sahhab, Tarek Soueid, Tony Abou Jaoude, Carla Haddad and Jessy Abdo, joined Taxi Night to set a good example to youngsters and raise awareness against drunk driving. 

During the event, Kunhadi President Mr. Fady Gebrane, announced Taxi Night’s nomination for the international “Road Safety in the Community Award” organized by Brake UK, for the innovative way it has positively affected the community and introduced the culture of using a Taxi after a night out. Kunhadi is the only organization from a middle-income country and from the region of Middle East and Africa, competing against international companies most of which are enlisted in the New York and/or London stock exchange.

Kunhadi thanks everyone one who supported and participated in Taxi Night, the events’ sponsors Bank of Beirut, Diageo, and Zaatar W Zeit, Ihjoz for its collaboration, the DJs for the wonderful music and, of course, Kunhadi volunteers!

Kunhadi Begins “Taxi Driver School” Project

In November 2014, Kunhadi announced its plan to start a free Taxi Drivers school, sponsored by Kunhadi Ambassador Mrs. Inas Abou Ayyash to boost the level of driving of Lebanese Taxi Drivers and improve client-experience in the hopes of encouraging the use of Taxis.

This month, Kunhadi hosted trainers from two groups of international professional driving trainers, NYD Driving School (UK) and WAATA (Australia), who prepared members of Kunhadi to become qualified driving trainers for taxi drivers.

Kunhadi’s new trainers completed the first training section by WA Advanced Training Academy and received the Defensive Driving certificate.

New Traffic Law Implementation Decreased Traffic Crashes By 70%

Two months after the implementation of the New Traffic Law in Lebanon, the Internal Security Forces announced a remarkable decrease of more than 70% in traffic crashes compared to the previous year.

Compared to the same period in 2014, statistics from April 22 until June 25 this year show that traffic crashes decreased by 71.5% from 899 in 2014 to 256 in 2015.

The toll of fatalities and injuries also decreased by more than half:
The number of deaths dropped by 40.21% from 97 in 2014 to 58 in 2015, meaning that over 39 people were saved from death and 746 more were saved from light and serious injury after the toll of injuries fell by 62.2% from 1198 to 452.

These results showcase the positive effect the implementation of the traffic law could have on improving road safety in Lebanon.

The ISF urges all drivers and road users to keep respecting the traffic law to turn this temporary change into a continuous one.

Kunhadi reminds you that studies have shown that driver behavior accounts for more than 80% of the crash cause, making it capable of triggering a radical change.

Kunhadi also urges the Prime Minister to call a meeting of the National Council for Road Safety  and set a comprehensive national plan for the correct and organized implementation of the new traffic law and improvement of road safety in Lebanon.