Martin Todd, retail sales manager for ExxonMobil in the UK and Ireland, speaking at the launch of Safe Drive Stay Alive in Surrey.

November 8, 2006

High Sheriff, Chairman of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

ExxonMobil is delighted to be associated with this third run of Safe Drive Stay Alive in Surrey. Accident statistics show there is a clear need to encourage vulnerable young drivers to stop and think about the consequences of careless driving, and we are pleased to have a part to play in this campaign.

I was impressed last year when my own daughter came home after attending one of the performances, and related to me what she had seen and heard. She found the accounts of accidents very powerful. She's now learned to drive and has a car of her own, and I can tell you that she has much more road awareness than I did at her age.

We have sponsored Safe Drive Stay Alive in Fife and Grampian, in Scotland, as well as in Surrey. Wherever ExxonMobil has major operating locations we have well-established links with the emergency services as part of our community investment programme. We run our North Sea exploration and production operations from Aberdeen, we have an ethylene manufacturing plant in Fife, and we have our UK headquarters at Leatherhead. We are very proud of our ties with the Fife, Grampian and Surrey Fire and Rescue Services.

Anyone who knows ExxonMobil well will know that we have a passion for safety. We are committed to providing a safe workplace and the elimination of the pain and suffering associated with accidents. Concern for the health and safety of our employees and contractors also extends to our customers and neighbours. Which is why, when we first heard of Safe Drive Stay Alive, it appealed to us straight away. It's an initiative that fits entirely with our goal of a work environment where 'nobody gets hurt'.

In my job I am responsible for the Esso service stations. We have 950 sites throughout the UK, and our people who manage them spend a lot of their time on the road. Unfortunately, our sites and people can get closer to accidents than we would like. And because risks and hazards appear to change in front of our eyes, there's a need to constantly freshen our safety awareness focus. These days we're finding the majority of incidents are motorway-related, with quite a few near-misses involving left-hand-drive trucks whose drivers appear unable to see our cars. Surrey is surrounded by motorways, so we need to be particularly wary of this risk.

In closing, I would like to thank the emergency services for their hard work and efforts, the other corporate sponsors for their support, and all the other organisations and people who have helped with the Safe Drive Stay Alive campaign in Surrey.

By the end of this year, we expect that nearly 40,000 young people in the UK will have seen a performance of Safe Drive Stay Alive that ExxonMobil has supported. To have reached so many people is an incredible achievement, and we are proud to be supporting such a worthwhile cause.

Thank you.