Safety
For PZU, success is measured by achievement of not only business but also social goals.
As the largest insurer in Poland and at the same time a socially responsible company, PZU pursues large-scale prevention actions aimed at reducing the number of accidents in Poland. Cooperation with rescue organizations, both professional and volunteer-based ones, support for local actions serving the improvement of safety and the forging of responsible and safe conduct, are regarded by PZU as the bases for social commitment.
Social actions, education and training of drivers are consistent measures that bring measurable effects. The partners of PZU’s prevention actions include the Police, the Legionowo Voluntary Water Rescue Service, the State and Voluntary Fire Rescue Service, the Border Guard. Thanks to the cooperation with the “Teddy Bears Rescue Children’s Lives” Association and the Siemacha Association, children injured in road accidents receive psychological help, which allows them to regain mental equilibrium, and can count on assistance from physiotherapists.
2020 saw the premiere of the fourth season of the documentary, the production of which involved PZU. The cycle broadcast by TVP was devoted to the topic of safety in road traffic, pointed to the causes of motor accidents, and taught safe behaviors on the road, at home, by the water, in the mountains, and while traveling. For three months, the viewers of TVP1 followed the dramatic stories of 12 protagonists. Each of them had to face the difficult everyday life after the accident, which was brought about seemingly harmless events.
The aim of PZU’s involvement in this production was to draw viewers’ attention to the dramatic consequences of a few moments of distraction, bravado, or seemingly trivial yet dangerous situations. The series enjoyed a high viewership. Each episode was watched on TVP by almost 1 million viewers on average. It turned out, thus, that it is true stories of people struggling to recover after an accident that have the strongest appeal to viewers’ imagination.
The idea for the program came up in 2017 and the first season was broadcast already that year. This was a response of the insurer to the increase in the number of road accidents. In total, 48 episodes have been broadcast so far.
VOD Performance highlights of the advertising campaign:
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There is a road accident in Poland every fifteen minutes on average. According to the estimates by the Motor Transport Institute, even one in four results from using a cell phone while driving. Almost 60 percent of Polish drivers admit to talking on hand-held phones while driving. At the same time, every third driver believes that they have divided attention and holding a phone to their ear does not affect safe driving. This is contradicted by the expert opinions and scientific tests commissioned by PZU. They show that one second of inattention, when you dial a phone number or text a message, with the speed of 50 km per hour means a travelled distance of as many as 13 meters. Road traffic safety specialists and psychologists warn: it is a deadly threat!
Experts claim also that you need as long as 13 seconds to focus again on driving after your phone has rung or an app notification has popped up. This, in combination with the so-called driving by memory, automatic maneuvering and conviction of being a reliable driver, is a mixture that could prove tragic.
To prevent that, PZU organized a nationwide social campaign entitled “Are you driving? Then put the phone down!” for the second time.
It was a continuation of the insurer’s campaign carried out in the autumn of 2019.
This is when it was launched by PZU. The surveys commissioned by PZU revealed then that one in five drivers regularly reads text messages or emails while driving. PZU’s campaign contributed to a drop in the number of drivers reading text messages by as many as 6 percentage point, as follows from a CAWI survey conducted on Norstat panel users.
On the summer vacation, four spots intended to draw attention to this common problem were broadcast online for around a month. The authors of three of them were young people who, inspired by PZU’s autumn campaign, engaged in the action. The spots were created during the Film Spring Open in October 2019 under the supervision of the best film-makers in Poland and abroad.
“This year’s prevention campaign has been addressed primarily to young Poles, since it is mainly them that never put their smartphones down: whether they are driving a car, riding a bicycle or crossing the street. Despite having little experience, they believe in their driving skills and divisibility of attention, which in fact does not exist. And this is why PZU has asked young creators, peers to the campaign recipients, participants of the Film Spring Open 2019 workshops, to make the spots. The four spots, all on the same topic yet using different forms of communication, have been watched by nearly 10 million people!”Our efforts are making a change!
AAS BALTA has supported the Latvian Road Traffic Safety Directorate, which organized, in early 2019, a widely publicized campaign to raise drivers and pedestrians’ awareness about the negative effects of using cell phones while driving and thus increase road traffic safety. In 2020, AAS BALTA supported the campaign again by developing a special “zombie-mobile” car, where a driver using a phone was shown as a zombie. The car was driving around the streets of Riga for a week to encourage people to sign a petition posted on AAS BALTA’s website. The point was to express the willingness to refrain from using a phone while driving and inspire one’s family and friends to do the same. The petition was signed by over a thousand people. The campaign was described in more than 60 publications in the Latvian media.
AAS BALTA continues to engage in collaboration with the Road Traffic Safety Directorate for raising the Latvian society’s awareness about the hazards of using cell phones while driving.
AWARD
AAS BALTA’s annual “The safest car fleet” award is the only award in Latvia for car fleet owners and administrators. Its aim is to improve the overall quality of cars and, consequently, safety on Latvian roads. In 2020, in collaboration with the Latvian Ministry of Transport, AAS BALTA organized the contest for the eighth time. There were 57 fleets which competed in 4 categories, representing a few dozen thousand vehicles. The award was granted to 33 fleets.
Already since 2013 PZU has been running a comprehensive psychological support system for parties injured in accidents whose perpetrators were holders of TPL policies with PZU. To mitigate the consequences of accidents PZU underwrites the costs of stays for children with post-accident trauma and their guardians at rehabilitation stays during the winter break and summer vacation. This is a form of residential psychological therapy conducted in the therapeutic centers of the Teddy Bears Rescue Children’s Lives Association in Dźwierzyna and the Siemacha Association in Odparyszów. Annually, PZU lends a helping hand in this form to roughly 120 persons.
Due to the pandemic, PZU was able to organize only two winter stays in 2020. As a result of the restrictions imposed in connection with the pandemic, subsequent stationary stays have been withheld. PZU is planning to organize them in 2021 if only the epidemic situation allows it. Additionally, due to the increasing number of people who have suffered as a result of an oncological disease in the family, PZU has expanded its offer by specially profiled rehabilitation stays for such people.
As part of the program development, it is intended to:
- establish cooperation with a new center specializing in residential therapy for children from families affected by oncological diseases;
- expand the network of entities offering an ad hoc psychotherapeutic and psycho-oncological support, including remote therapy;
- enhance cooperation with a medical center specializing in an innovative therapy of spinal cord injuries.
For many years PZU has been collaborating with selected rescue services. Promotion of safety in the mountains is possible due to the collaboration with the Voluntary Mountain Rescue Service. PZU has got financially involved in avalanche training organized by the Polish Freeskiing Association and TOPR. The participants learn how to engage in proper planning on mountain trips, how to avoid the avalanche hazard and how to behave after an avalanche.
Mock rescue operations are also organized with the use of detectors; they also learn how to find people buried in an avalanche and how to administer first aid to avalanche victims. All this takes place in the PZU Avalanche Training Center in Kalatówki.
PZU has been supporting GOPR for 15 years by, among others, providing equipment for administering rescue operations, financing rescuer training, carrying out joint educational activities (e.g. Safe Winter with GOPR). In collaboration with GOPR, PZU has launched an e-learning platform dedicated to safety in the mountains.
In 2020, in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, rescuers faced new challenges:
- increased tourist flow in the mountains;
- support for medical services in reaching patients living in areas that are not easily accessible;
- protection of rescuers against the risk of COVID-19 infection.
PZU has used its prevention fund to co-finance the purchase of four mountain ambulances and two quads with alternative drives. The equipment will enable rescuers to help the injured faster and more effectively. Additionally, at the peak of the pandemic, when the availability of protective suits and masks was poorest, PZU financed the purchase of sets of personal protective equipment (protective suits, masks and gloves). In 2020, additional avalanche rescue sets were provided to the Snow and Avalanche Service and down clothing for working in extreme winter conditions was purchased for the GOPR Snow and Avalanche Service. PZU also supported the modernization of the central station of the GOPR Jurajska Group in Podlesice.
- GOPR operates in an area covering over 20,000 km2; protecting 7,200 km of hiking trails in mountain ranges from the Karkonosze Mountains to the Bieszczady Mountains.
- GOPR receives approx. 400 requests for rescue annually through the Ratunek [Rescue] app.
PZU has been supporting water rescuers operating in Legionowo for 9 years. With the help of PZU and in collaboration with LWOPR, many projects for increased safety of people spending their leisure time at the Zegrze Lake have been implemented. Investments in specialized equipment, infrastructure and its upgrade as well as educational projects are a real aid to those relaxing at the lake.
In 2020, the PZU prevention fund co-financed Legionowo WOPR’s purchases of:
- outboard motors, which make it easier for boats to reach the injured quickly and enable performance of rescue operations in several locations at the same time;
- an off-road vehicle dedicated for boat launching and towing and a bus with specialist equipment for transporting a rescue team.
The financial support from PZU was used also for buying a boat with water rescue equipment and a sonar for underwater searches. A professional communications system was also financed. Investments in specialized equipment is not all. PZU enabled the construction of platforms and a parking lot at the Zegrze Lake. The new infrastructure allowed the proper mooring of boats as well as the efficient and safe administration of rescue operations. Moreover, educational campaigns were carried out and advertising spots teaching safe behavior by the water were broadcast.
The specialized equipment purchased using the PZU prevention fund is employed in drills and rescue operations conducted in collaboration with other services: military, police, fire departments. PZU has contributed to the LWOPR service reaching far beyond the Zegrze Lake area.
In 2020, LWOPR took part in 200 rescue operations and 250 people were rescued thanks to, among others, the investments made using the PZU prevention fund.
PZU will continue its collaboration with LWOPR in 2021. It is planning to co-finance the upgrade of a sea container to serve as a rescue hut, which will be situated on the beach in Wieliszewo, and the expansion of the video surveillance network in the Zegrze Lake area, with a particular focus on the spots customarily used for bathing which have not been covered by video surveillance and supervision yet.
A survey conducted by AAS BALTA revealed that 73% of the respondents either could not swim or believed that their swimming skills were poor. As early as in mid-2020, the number of drownings in Latvia nearly exceeded that of the entire 2019. Therefore, AAS BALTA committed itself to taking measures for improving people’s swimming skills.
One of the initiatives was giving support to Swim Safe, a non-governmental organization. The funds were raised during “Krastu mači”, a basketball tournament held at a festival in Riga and lasting for 24 hours with no breaks. AAS BALTA undertook to donate EUR 2 to Swim Safe for each point scored by the basketball players. The donation amounted to EUR 4,268 in total and was allocated to the organization of swimming classes at schools.
In the first half of May 2020, just before the summer vacation, AAS BALTA invited all school children as well as their parents and teachers to take a test on their knowledge about how to stay safe during the vacation. The test was developed together with the Police, Road Traffic Safety Directorate and “Centrs Dardedze”, a family center. Everyone who took the test not only expanded their knowledge about safety but also became eligible for a free BALTA ADD insurance cover for the duration of the summer vacation. More than 10 thousand school children and their parents took part in the action.
Having won as many as six statuettes in the contest organized by MojeBankowanie.pl, an industry portal, including in The Best CSR Project category, PZU reached the top position in the prestigious “Institution of the Year” ranking list in 2020. A distinction was awarded to PZU’s 2019 campaign entitled “Helping is Power”. It enabled inhabitants of local communities to establish cooperation with nongovernmental organizations. Foundations, associations, student sports clubs filed applications to take local actions for improvement of their communities’ health and have a real impact on improvement of safety. A joint effort allowed the implementation of numerous important and desired initiatives, e.g. delivering first aid training, assembling radar speed signs in critical locations and teaching safety rules to children.
In 2019, PZU allocated PLN 8.7 million in total to subsidies for local communities. One of the most spectacular actions was providing financing to Voluntary Fire Service units for specialized rescue equipment used for saving life and property and minimizing the effects of weather anomalies. There were 125 non-governmental organizations that enrolled as partners of the action willing to act in the local environment hand in hand with the inhabitants.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the action did not take place.