Motorbike-choked Vietnam launches helmet campaign
Vietnam launched a national campaign Thursday urging people to wear helmets when riding motorbikes, hoping to reduce brain injuries and fatalities in the communist country where motorbikes are the main mode of transport.
The "Wear A Helmet - No Excuses" campaign, launched by Asia Injury Prevention Foundation and Vietnam's National Traffic Safety Committee, aims to increase people's awareness on the importance of wearing helmets.
Last year, 14,000 Vietnamese people died and 30,000 were injured from road crashes in Vietnam.
"A silent tsunami of road crashes currently sweeps away over 1,000 lives every month in Vietnam," said the foundation's president Greig Craft. "Think about it: the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every 21 days in Vietnam killing all aboard."
Vietnam, with a population of 85 million people, has more than 21 million motorbikes, outnumbering cars by 20 to one. Yet, only 3 per cent of the country's motorbike drivers wear helmets.
According to the National Traffic Safety Committee, 76 per cent of brain trauma cases are caused by traffic accidents, and up to 98 per cent of the accident victims hospitalized were not wearing helmets.
"Wearing helmets will help reduce the number of traffic accident victims suffering from brain injuries by 70 per cent," said Pham Manh Viet, deputy secretary of the Traffic Safety Committee.
The campaign includes a series of activities to be organized throughout the year, such as outdoor concerts, TV campaigns, print ads, banners, billboards, bus signs and internet sites.
Vietnam now requires helmets to be worn on national highways, but not in cities or on country roads. A proposed nationwide helmet law in 2001 met with popular opposition.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - March 29, 2007.
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