~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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High road toll pushes Vietnam towards helmet use

HANOI - Vietnam has sped into the motorized age, but the bicycle and the conical straw hat have been slow to give way to the crash helmet as protection in dangerous traffic. The estimated daily death toll of 35 people or more is one of the world's highest traffic accident rates. Many of the victims are motorbike riders without protective headgear. Only 15 years ago Vietnam was primarily a bicycle-pedaling society, but rapid economic development since 1990 has made it the world's fastest motorizing country.

"It caught the government off guard, it caught society off guard," said Greig Craft of the Hanoi-based Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, a U.S. non-profit group that works with the government and United Nations agencies to improve road safety. "There was no training, no licensing procedures. The enforcement and education wasn't there."

Last month, the World Bank approved a $28.5 million loan to enhance its existing work with government and non-governmental groups to support road safety and improve public awareness. It said Vietnam's Communist Party rulers recognized that the high accident and death rates were an urgent political and social issue.

A death on the road can push a family back into destitution in a developing country such as Vietnam, where the average annual per capita wage is about $450. Millions live just above the poverty line, even after reforms that experts say have reduced poverty among the country's 82 million people. The new campaign emphasizes the need for "speed-limit and drunk-driving enforcement, separation of traffic and motorcycle helmet law enforcement."

The Southeast Asian country went from half a million vehicles of all kinds in 1990 to almost 14 million at the end of 2004, according to the National Traffic Safety Committee. The ever-increasing number of vehicles is fueled by one of the world's fastest expanding economies. Gross domestic product grew at about 7.5 percent in 2004, the government said.

Chaotic traffic

The streets of the capital, Hanoi, the commercial center, Ho Chi Minh City, and other towns teem with motorbikes weaving between cars, bicycles and pedestrians. In the biggest cities, crossing the street is hazardous with few crosswalks or traffic lights available. Relatively few riders or passengers wear helmets. The preferred headgear includes cotton caps and sometimes the conical hats that are one of Vietnam's best-known symbols.

Entire families of three or four often crowd the seat. A motorbike's cargo can include everything from trees to chickens and pigs, TV sets and crates of beer. Helmets are required on designated national roads but the law is not universally enforced. Last month, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee proposed a policy for all bike users to wear a helmet. The hope is that the National Assembly legislature this year will debate and approve laws requiring helmets for users of all two-wheeled vehicles.

In the vernacular, Vietnamese frequently refer to helmets as "noi com dien" or "rice cooker" because they are hot and uncomfortable. Asia Injury makes lightweight helmets at a factory near Hanoi to encourage more usage. In recent years government, international institutions and advocacy groups have supported and paid for education programs and helmets for children, road improvement and law enforcement. Every morning, state-run TV shows skits of poor road safety and instruction on the correct practices. All of these measures have helped raise awareness of road dangers, but the death toll keeps rising.

Last year, 12,096 people were killed and 15,633 injured in 17,532 accidents, the government said. Observers such as Asia Injury estimate the number could be up to 30 percent higher because many accidents go unreported. In 2003, Vietnam had a reported death rate of more than 12 per 10,000 vehicles, or about 11,300 people, the World Bank said. It is not the only developing country in the region with a similar problem. The rates were below those of Malaysia, the Philippines and Cambodia.

But comparable rates worldwide were in the range of two to three deaths per 10,000 vehicles, including industrialized nations such as the United States and Japan. Convincing more Vietnamese to wear helmets on motorbikes comes down to cost, police enforcement and designs better suited to the country's heat and humidity, safety advocates say. One reason some Vietnamese say they do not wear helmets is the price.

"We bought helmets in bulk but we do not sell very many," said Phai Huong, a sales attendant in a small motorbike helmet store in Hanoi. "In Vietnam many people are very poor so only a few buy helmets because they are expensive," she said. The cheapest helmet for sale was 50,000 Dong ($3) and the most expensive one was 1 million Dong ($63). Like them or not, crash helmets have saved lives, said Asia Injury spokesman Hoang Tu Giang. "Some people don't like to wear it because they say it is a 'rice cooker' but many people have fallen back into poverty because the breadwinner died in an accident. So what do you choose?" Giang said.

By Grant McCool - Reuters - April 13, 2005