Toyota has held a Safety Forum in Tianjin, where it introduced Toyota traffic safety initiatives to the Chinese media through presentations, technology exhibits and live crash testing.Toyota held the forum last week against a backdrop of growing vehicle safety awareness in China. For its presentations and technology exhibits at a local conference venue, Toyota used actual vehicles and other displays to introduce, among other initiatives, its advanced GOA (Global Outstanding Assessment) collision-safety body and a pedestrian-injury-lessening vehicle body structure.

To demonstrate the high level of safety inherent in Toyota vehicles, Toyota performed live crash testing of the locally produced Reiz at the China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC), also in Tianjin.

Reflecting on the increasing number of traffic accidents and causalities in China, TMC Senior Managing Director Tetsuo Hattori, head of Toyota's Vehicle Engineering Group, said at the forum, "Toyota feels it has a major social responsibility to carry out safety initiatives. On top of its commitment to providing safe vehicles in China, Toyota also seeks to contribute as much as possible to various traffic safety awareness activities, accident investigation and analysis using data from Japan and elsewhere and various joint research projects."

In addition to improving vehicle safety performance, Toyota has actively taken measures to reduce traffic accidents in China through such activities as offering safe-driving courses, which were held in Beijing last October.

Seeking to be a good corporate citizen in China, Toyota hopes to contribute to Chinese society by placing an emphasis on environmental conservation, traffic safety and personnel development.