SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – Global automotive supplier DENSO and its more than 23,000 employees in North America will mark the company’s Global Safety Month in May with a pair of new driving safety partnerships. Non-profits Safe Kids Worldwide and B.R.A.K.E.S. will help identify and engage DENSO employees across the U.S. and Canada as local driving safety advocates. Both organizations will join NHRA driver Clay Millican for a mobile road show touring DENSO facilities throughout the year, starting with DENSO’s Battle Creek and Southfield, Michigan locations later this week.

The partnerships underscore DENSO’s work to both craft the latest vehicle safety technology and educate drivers about how to use it to reduce auto accidents. DENSO will donate a total of $225,000 to the two organizations as part of the partnerships.

“Crafting automotive technology that helps save lives is at the core of what we do, but we also need to make sure drivers have the knowledge to take advantage,” said Robert Townsend, director of External Affairs at DENSO’s North American Regional Headquarters in Southfield, Michigan. “Safety needs to start at the local level, and these partnerships will empower our employees to engage their communities in meaningful dialogue about driving risks and safe behaviors.”

Safe Kids has nearly 30 years of experience educating communities about child safety on the road. The organization will develop comprehensive road safety toolkits for DENSO employees, providing the resources to become local road safety advocates. B.R.A.K.E.S. (Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe) provides free hands-on driving education for teens and their parents. Both organizations will participate in the road show, showcasing their work and recruiting employees to deliver important safety messages in communities where DENSO employees live and work. DENSO will provide financial support for the B.R.A.K.E.S. Teen Pro-Active Driving School to host trainings in the communities where it operates. To date, B.R.A.K.E.S. has trained more than 25,000 new drivers across the country.

NHRA driver Clay Millican and his DENSO-sponsored Top Fuel dragster will also provide an interactive experience for employees at each road show stop. Clay, a passionate driving safety advocate, will engage with employees and showcase his dragster’s safety features, after which employees can take a seat in DENSO’s Future of Mobility virtual reality experience.

DENSO is a leading global automotive supplier of advanced technology, systems and components in the areas of thermal, powertrain control, electronics and information and safety. With its North American headquarters located in Southfield, Michigan, DENSO employs more than 23,000 people at 28 consolidated subsidiaries and 4 affiliates across the North American region. Of these, 25 are manufacturing facilities located in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In the United States alone, DENSO employs more than 17,000 people in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Iowa, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. DENSO’s North American consolidated sales totaled US$9.6 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. For more information, go to www.denso.com/us-ca/en. Connect with DENSO on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DENSOinNorthAmerica.

Safe Kids Worldwide is a nonprofit organization working to protect kids on the road, at home and at play. Preventable injuries are the number one cause of death for children in the United States. Throughout the world, almost one million children die of an injury each year, and almost every one of these tragedies is preventable. Safe Kids works with an extensive network of more than 400 coalitions in the U.S. and with partners in more than 30 countries to reduce traffic injuries, drownings, falls, burns, poisonings and more. Since 1988, Safe Kids has helped reduce the U.S. childhood death rate from unintentional injury by 60 percent. Working together, we can do much more to protect kids. Join our effort at safekids.org.

In 2008, multi-time top fuel drag racing champion Doug Herbert suffered every parent’s worst nightmare – the loss of his two sons, Jon age 17 and James age 12, in a car crash. In response to this tragedy and the realization that car crashes are the number-one cause of death among teens in America, Herbert created the 501 (c)(3) non-profit B.R.A.K.E.S. (Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe) Teen Pro-Active Driving School. In the past eight years, more than 25,000 teens from 43 states and three countries have graduated from B.R.A.K.E.S.’ intensive half-day training course, which is free of charge and features hands-on skills exercises taught by professional instructors in a fleet of new vehicles donated by Kia Motors America. The course maintains a low three-to-one student-to-instructor ratio and requires at least one parent to attend with each teen. According to a recent study, B.R.A.K.E.S. graduates are 64 percent less likely to be in a crash in their first three years of driving. For more information or to register for a school, visit www.putonthebrakes.org.