South Korea’s auto giant Hyundai Motor Co. on Monday opened a traffic safety experience center for children in the southern city of Ulsan, making it the largest educational facility for road safety in the country.

Hyundai Motor said on Monday that it opened Kids’ Auto Park in Ulsan, an experiential traffic safety education facility that aims to enhance road safety among children. The opening ceremony was attended by Song Byung-gi, vice mayor of Ulsan Metropolitan City, and Ha Eon-tae, vice president at Hyundai Motor.

Hyundai Motor’s Kids’ Auto Park Ulsan, the first traffic safety experience facility that opened in the country outside Seoul, covers an area of 7,378 square meters and provides various educational facilities. The company expected the auto park to welcome more than 10,000 young visitors every year.

The building of Kids’ Auto Park in Ulsan is part of Hyundai Motor’s corporate social responsibility activity joined by regional government and a non-profit organization. Ulsan city provided land for the center and Hyundai Motor facility construction and operations. Korean Association for Safety Communities will be responsible for introducing educational programs as well as operations.

Hyundai Motor said Kids’ Auto Park Ulsan offers various experiential education facilities for children such as hands-on training related to safety belts and street crossing, coping with blind areas after alighting from back streets, and actual driving experience using Hyundai Motor’s newly developed Kona mini electric car. The center also has a professional trainer that educates children about traffic safety rules.

The automaker also plans to introduce new contents for its three-dimensional videos in the second half of this year.

Ha from Hyundai Motor said that the opening is a result of two years of efforts by Ulsan Metropolitan City, Hyundai Motor, its labor union, and Korean Association for Safety Communities. The vice president said the center will provide the right traffic safety education to children living in Ulsan and nearby areas and put out efforts to help reduce traffic accidents involving children.

Hyundai Motor, meanwhile, opened its first Kids’ Auto Park inside Children’s Grand Park in Neung-dong, Gwangjin District in eastern Seoul in 2009. The park has provided traffic safety education to a cumulated 142,000 children over 10 years as of end of last month. Hyundai Motor also opened an auto park for children in Yancheng City in China in 2014, providing traffic safety training to 35,000 students every year.

By Lee Jong-hyuk and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]