Traffic institute teams up with football club to promote safer driving
Football club OH Leuven and traffic institute Vias are working together on a road safety campaign, in response to a dramatic crash in March by OH Leuven midfielder Sofian Kiyine, who was driving with 1.6 promille of alcohol in his blood.
OH Leuven is the first Belgian club to work with Vias to provide all players and staff with guidance on safer driving. Every September, the club will host a training day during which the all players and technical staff learn about the three main causes of death in traffic: speeding, use of mobile phones and drink-driving.
New foreign players will receive personal coaching from an instructor, who will accompany them on their usual route to the club and teach them about Belgian traffic rules. Players will also be made aware of high-risk locations such as schools and busy junctions.
Kiyine, 25, will follow a personal programme, which includes a voluntary alcohol lock. In the crash in Flémalle, Liège, he clipped a roundabout at high speed, launching the car into the air and crashing through the upper wall of a sports hall, where a group of children had recently been practising. Kiyine was taken to hospital but nobody else was injured.
A police investigation is ongoing, but Leuven expect Kiyine to continue playing for them.
“Sometimes something bad has to happen to arrive at something positive,” said OHL CEO Peter Willems. The campaign was launched on Friday at the King Power @ Den Dreef stadium and will initially last three years.
#FlandersNewsService | The aftermath of Sofian Kiyine's crash in Flémalle, Liège, on 31 March 2023 © BELGA PHOTO BRUNO FAHY / © BELGA HANDOUT VIDEO FACEBOOK/S ECHEVARRIA ZAMORANO
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