Pirelli Tire North America, Rio Ventures, and CellSlip Join Together For Safer Roads

Pirelli Tire North America, Rio Ventures, and CellSlip Join Together For Safer Roads

Coalition to Advance Worldwide Road Safety Continues Growth, Bringing Public and Private Sectors Together on Mission-Critical Campaigns

BROOKLYN, NY – June 6, 2019 – Together for Safer Roads (TSR), a coalition of leading private sector companies, today announced new members, Pirelli Tire North America, Rio Ventures, and CellSlip. Each company is committed to supporting technological advances in road safety around the world and join a prestigious group of members including AB InBev, AIG, AT&T, CalAmp, Republic Services, Lyft, Ericsson, GM, iHeartMedia, Octo Telematics, Geotab, PepsiCo, UPS, Walmart, and others.

According to UN data, an estimated 1.35 million people are killed every year in road crashes and up to 50 million more are injured. This costs the global economy $1.85 trillion. TSR is advancing road safety with actionable campaigns and programs, including safer fleets, safer cities, and data and digital innovation. Forward-thinking companies like CellSlip, Pirelli, and Rio Ventures are joining the cause because of their actionable commitment to road safety innovation and technology to prevent crashes, injuries and deaths.

“At Pirelli, we are continually pushing ourselves to make an impact in global road safety through the application of innovative technologies that make vehicles and fleets safer,” said Maureen Kline, Vice President, Public Affairs and Sustainability, Pirelli Tire North America. “At the same time, we want to be actively involved in understanding and collaborating with others also dedicated to this mission – our tires are just part of the road safety ecosystem. Working with Together For Safer Roads and its member companies and partners will allow us to have a greater impact on this key pillar of sustainable development.”

“Together For Safer Roads has proven to be a driving force in bringing together the intellectual property of private sector companies, the innovation of startups affecting what happens on our roads, and the public sector’s desire to create safer outcomes for every citizen using our roads,” said Gustavo Pimenta, Co-Founder & Principal of Rio Ventures. “We are excited to get more involved with the Coalition and its members to further advance road and vehicle safety technologies.”

“Bringing awareness to the epidemic of distracted driving has been a passion of mine for a long time – and the need was driven home even more for me when a distracted driver hit my wife and three children in 2016,” said Mitch Bain, Founder of CellSlip. “Luckily, they walked away with minor injuries, but I was compelled to create CellSlip, which helps drivers keep phone distractions at bay by blocking every signal to a driver’s mobile phone. Our mission aligns well with Together For Safer Roads’ larger effort to improve road safety, so it was a natural fit to join the Coalition to extend our reach, collaborate with like-minded companies around the world, and continue to save lives.”

“We recognize that talking about the issue of road safety is not enough – there must be action. We focus on working with companies who understand their responsibility for action and lead by example through such,” said David Braunstein, President, Together For Safer Roads. “There are multiple facets to making real change take place, and these new members have all shown commitment to different elements of our mission. Collectively, our Coalition is making a difference through working together and as a conduit between private sector member companies and public sector organizations to test, analyze, and collaborate on road safety innovations.”

TSR currently focuses on three critical programs in order to improve road safety:

Safer Cities – bringing together the private and public sectors to diagnose road safety challenges and deliver measurable solutions using combined expertise and resources
Safer Fleets – leveraging member companies’ collective private sector intellectual capital and expertise to advance best practices for companies and their fleets
Data and Digital Innovation – connecting early-stage companies with established organizations to reimagine solutions that reduce crashes and fatalities on the world’s roads.

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ABOUT TOGETHER FOR SAFER ROADS
Together for Safer Roads is a global NGO that works with government, businesses and community stakeholders on local projects, fleet safety management and technology initiatives to prevent traffic crashes, injuries and deaths. TSR was started in conjunction with the UN’s Decade of Road safety and has partners around the world. TSR’s members include AB InBev, AIG, AT&T, CalAmp, Republic Services, Lyft, Ericsson, GM, iHeartMedia, Octo Telematics, Geotab, PepsiCo, UPS, Walmart, and others. Learn more at www.togetherforsaferroads.org.

ABOUT PIRELLI TIRE

Pirelli was founded in 1872 and has its headquarters in Milan, Italy. Pirelli focuses its business on the high end, premium product segment where it is a world leader. Pirelli has a commercial presence in over 160 countries and 19 factories in 12 countries. Successfully competing in motorsports since 1907, Pirelli is currently the exclusive supplier of the Formula 1© championship, the Superbike world championship, and many other championships around the world.

Pirelli is recognized as a socially and environmentally aware corporation that applies sustainable practices in everything from “green performance” products to responsible sourcing, to providing a healthy environment for its workers. The company is currently global leader in the auto components sector of the Dow Jones Sustainability World and Europe Indexes, on the CDP Climate Change A List, and a leader in several other indexes and rankings such as Euronext Vigeo, Ethibel Pioneer and Ethibel Excellence, ECPI and Oekom.

Pirelli Tire North America (PTNA) includes the Modular Integrated Robotized System (MIRS) facility and research and development center at its Rome, Georgia headquarters, a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Silao, Mexico, sales and marketing offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Detroit, Montreal and Mexico City, and a prestige flagship store in Los Angeles. The company manufactures, distributes and markets original equipment and replacement tires for export and domestic car/motorcycle applications. For more information regarding Pirelli, please visit www.pirelli.com

ABOUT RIO VENTURES

RIO Ventures Holdings is a private venture partnership established by two experienced corporate businessmen who leverage their expertise to actively partner with entrepreneurs that have grand ambitions to transform the world.

RIO invests in Israeli-based startups focused on selected “unstoppable trends” that will shape our world, such as Smart Cities/Roads, consumer driven personal mobility, Longevity & Wellbeing, and Sustainability. For more information, visit www.rio-ventures.com

ABOUT CELLSLIP

CellSlip is quickly becoming one of the top solutions to decrease cell phone use while driving. Since launching in November of 2016 after Mitch Bain’s family was hit by a distracted driver, he has sold over 250,000 CellSlips across the country, making our roads a safer place. CellSlip doesn’t just block signal, it acts as a visual reminder of the dangers of distracted driving while providing a physical barrier between the user and the temptation of using their phone. What makes CellSlip really unique is their ability to be fully customized with their partners’ logos and messages, making it a very powerful life-saving promotional product. CellSlip has been featured on the Home Shopping Network, Headline News, the Huffington Post and other media outlets across the country helping it partner with small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, and top traffic safety organizations like Together for Safer Roads, who share the same mission to make our roads a safer place. For more information, visit www.cellslip.com.