Vietnam's dangerous streets
Any drive down the bustling streets of Hanoi is a
nail-biting experience, with taxis and private cars
jostling for space with rows of motorbikes, bicycles and
four-wheeled bicycle taxis. Also navigating the traffic
are Vietnamese women carrying on their shoulders
traditional quang ganhs, or long sticks supporting
baskets of produce.
It is difficult for anyone even to cross the street on foot.
"People ask me, what shots should I be taking" when
they travel to Vietnam, says Phuong Le, a pediatrician
who is now the Vietnam country representative for
Atlantic Philanthropies, a Bermuda-based charity that
focuses on health and other issues. "I tell them, you
have a greater chance of being killed or maimed in a
traffic accident."
Last year, Vietnam recorded 28,658 traffic accidents.
There were 12,735 traffic fatalities and 32,131 injuries.
According to the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, or
AIPF, that is a rate of 14.4 deaths per 10,000 motor
vehicles. In the United States, the comparable figure is
2.1 deaths.
The government is cracking down on drivers who
break the law. As a result, accidents dropped by
21.4% in February 2003 compared to a year earlier.
About 64% of traffic accidents in Vietnam involve a
motorbike, the AIPF says, and 80%-90% of people
injured in such crashes suffer head injuries. So "these
are all preventable deaths," says Le, whose charity has
contributed to the AIPF.
By Rebecca Buckman - The Far Eastern Economic Review - March 27, 2003.
Educating the masses
On the educational front, the Asia Injury Prevention
Foundation is also starting to distribute
brightly-coloured booklets about road safety to
schoolchildren and accompanying manuals to their
teachers. BP, an energy provider, and Suzuki Motor, a
motorbike manufacturer, have each ponied up $50,000
for that effort. The charity also underwrote six different
public-service advertisements that ran last year in
several Vietnamese newspapers. One ad featured a
picture of a famous intellectual, Vietnamese historian Le
Van Lan, standing stoically on a busy street wearing a
Protec helmet. Under the large photo was the slogan, in
Vietnamese: "Protect Your Intelligence."
Founder Greig Craft wants to expand such
programmes, and even establish driving institutes and
schools, in other Asian nations, such as Bangladesh,
Nepal and Sri Lanka. Still, such efforts may cost $5
million-10 million a year in each of those countries.
By Rebecca Buckman - The Far Eastern Economic Review - March 27, 2003.
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