The Frères Marist Chanville School in Dek el-Mahdi won first place in the fifth edition of the “VIA” Traffic Safety Program for 2026.
Total Energies Marketing Lebanon announced the results during a ceremony held in collaboration with the Lebanese International Academy for Road Safety, under the patronage of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.
Eight schools from different regions of Lebanon participated in this year’s edition.
The program trained 160 students to serve as road safety ambassadors, who then launched awareness-raising activities that reached approximately 16,000 students.
Participants learned to identify hazards in their school environments, propose solutions, and communicate with municipalities to help implement them.
The Eastern Basilian College in Zahle placed second, and the National College of Chouf in Baakline placed third, according to the results announced at the ceremony.
“Chanville” received 5,000 euros in funding to improve traffic safety near the school.
Its team also qualified to represent Lebanon in the international phase of the program, which includes 25 countries and begins early next December.
During the ceremony, the representative of the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Engineer Pierre Maalouf, announced that the ministry, in cooperation with the Traffic Control Committee, had identified 54 locations across Lebanon with high accident risks.
He explained that the ministry is studying how to address these locations according to priorities and available resources, emphasizing the importance of sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting, and traffic signals near schools.
For his part, Thibault Doulis, General Manager of “Total Energies” in Lebanon, said that since its launch in 2022, the “Via” program has reached more than 36,200 students.
Among them, more than 15,200 have participated this year.
He noted that ideas from students in previous editions of the program have led to traffic improvements near schools in Badaro, Al-Fanar, and Rumieh.
Kamel Ibrahim, Director General of the Traffic Safety Academy, presented statistics on traffic accidents, noting that 310 fatalities had been recorded in Lebanon as of the end of August 2026.
According to the figures he presented, pedestrians accounted for 37% of the victims, while 35% of those killed were between the ages of 15 and 29.
The ceremony concluded with an awards ceremony for the school teams, during which the importance of involving students in protecting their school environments and promoting a culture of road safety was emphasized.
Read also:
