Helmets now mandatory in motorbike-crazy Vietnam
HANOI - Vietnamese motorcyclists appear to be complying with a new rule that gives them no choice but to wear a crash helmet, the latest drive to reduce the unacceptably high road traffic toll.
The millions of small, noisy motorbikes vrooming around city streets, often defying traffic laws, are symbols of the energy in the fast-emerging Southeast Asian market economy, but with severe costs in lives.
According to government estimates, up to 13,000 people are killed and more than 11,000 injured in traffic accidents every year. Half of all casualties are brain injuries.
"When suffering from cranial trauma, if not dead, most of them can no longer work," said Dr Cao Doc Lap as he stood among beds of seriously injured patients at Hanoi's Viet Duc hospital, where he is in charge of emergency care. "If the situation continues, then it will seriously affect our society."
The sickening toll on the young labour force year after year seems finally to have spurred the communist government and the general public into action.
Helmets became mandatory on December 15.
And while citizens had largely ignored previous decrees and campaigns, this time there were visible signs in the teeming city streets that more Vietnamese were willing to don protective headgear they have often derided as "rice cookers".
The central government's Resolution 32 requires all motorbike riders and passengers to wear helmets on all roads across the nation of 85 million.
On Saturday, compliance was high in the capital, Hanoi, and in the commercial centre of Ho Chi Minh City. The few who were not wearing helmets were stopped and fined by police officers stationed at many intersections.
Rice cookers
"We look kind of funny and silly with these rice cookers on our heads, but we can live with it. Everyone else is wearing a cooker too so no one can laugh at us," Do Thu Thuy, a 25-year-old marketing executive told Reuters from the back seat of her boyfriend's $5,000 Piaggio scooter in Hanoi.
"One good thing is that we do feel safer."
Police may impose instant fines of 100,000 -200,000 dong ($6-$12)). In a country where corruption is rife and people often pay cash to police for traffic violations, officers must write tickets so the fines could be paid at a state treasury office.
Speaking days before the rule came into force, Lap said his hospital treated 50-70 traffic accident patients a day, most of working age and 30 percent aged between 18 and 25.
The hospital courtyard and corridors were packed with mostly poor people, some crying in grief.
"He was not wearing a helmet," Hoang Thi Kim Chi, 23, said of her 17-year-old brother, unconscious for the past two weeks after crashing and cracking his skull. "He can't open his eyes or recognise family members."
Taking risks with road safety is a poverty trap in a country where the annual per capita income is still only about $835.
An accident that kills or seriously injures a breadwinner can send a family sliding back into destitution.
Vietnam, an overwhelmingly bicycle-pedalling society just 15 years ago, has motorised faster than many countries. There were fewer than 500,000 motorbikes in 1990 but now there are more than 22 million, increasing at 20 percent a year.
Dark side ?
"Maybe it's the dark side of globalisation," said American Greig Craft, founder of the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation.
"Investment is coming into these poor countries, which is a good thing but it's leading to certain social things that people aren't prepared for."
Craft has promoted helmet safety campaigns in Vietnam for nearly 10 years. He also has a factory near Hanoi that manufactures lightweight helmets suited for the tropical climate.
Though many Vietnamese can afford cars these days, small motorbikes are the cheaper, preferred mode of transportation.
The streets and roads of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are choking on the success of an economy growing at more than 8 percent a year while infrastructure lags far behind.
Motorbikes, often seen carrying entire families of four or overloaded with produce and poultry, have also come to symbolise individual independence in an authoritarian state.
Helmets are generally considered unfashionable and inconvenient in a hot climate.
In one helmet shop last week, young men and women were trying on brightly coloured red, green, blue and pink helmets to find the best one to wear on Saturday.
The women gazed in the mirror, adjusted the helmets and fussed with their long, silky black hair.
"I don't think a helmet affects my appearance," said one smiling customer, Vu Thi Cham. "I am wearing a helmet but my hair is still beautiful."
Helmets that have been tested for safety sell for between 149,000 and 215,000 dong ($9-$13) but some cheaper, poor-quality helmets made in neighbouring countries are also on sale.
By Grant McCool & Nguyen Nhat Lam & Nguyen Van Vinh - Reuters - December 15, 2007.
Vietnam's 21 Million Motorcyclists to Don Helmets Under New Law
HANOI - Vietnam's 21 million motorcyclists will be forced to wear helmets, known to locals as ``rice cookers,'' starting today as the government tries to cut down on road deaths by bringing a new law into force.
The Southeast Asian nation's burgeoning economic growth has boosted motorbike sales to one for every four of the 84 million Vietnamese. Rising incomes mean people are buying more vehicles from Honda Motor Co., Yamaha Motor Co. and Sanyang Industrial Co.
From 6 a.m. local time Vietnam's police force will be mobilized to check people are wearing helmets and fine violators as much as 200,000 dong ($12.50), according to Nguyen Duc Nhanh, head of the Hanoi police.
``Wearing helmets helps reduce damage caused by road accidents and raises public awareness in abiding by traffic regulations,'' said Pham Manh Viet, Hanoi-based vice chief administrator of the National Traffic Safety Committee, a government agency. ``We need to continue propaganda campaigns and give fines to violators.''
Clothes retailers and hairdressers on Hanoi's streets have started selling helmets, state-run television shows have been running features on how to decorate the headgear with paint and stickers, and giant billboards on the sides of highways show models and celebrities wearing protection.
The law has boosted sales of helmets both imported from China and made by Protec, part of the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, a non-profit organization aimed at reducing traffic deaths. The cost of a Protec helmet has increased to 200,000 dong, from 165,000 dong a few months ago.
`National Crisis'
The government tried to pass a similar law five years ago, but scrapped the plans due to opposition from the public. Nguyen Tan Dung, who became prime minister in June 2006, is determined to enforce the measures, said Grieg Craft, head of the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, which has worked with the government to develop helmet standards.
``There's no doubt that this government recognizes that this is a national crisis,'' said Craft. ``It's because of the sheer numbers of bikes that are on the road, but it's also because of a young population that has not had proper instruction on driving.''
The size of the fine will help deter law-breakers, said Craft. Vietnam's average income was 1.8 million dong a month last year, up from 1.6 million dong in 2005, according to the Government Statistics Office in Hanoi.
More than 2 million new motorbikes were registered in August, raising the total to 21 million, according to the GSO. The number of two-wheeled vehicles on the country's roads has risen from about 3 million a decade ago, according to the Vietnam Bicycle and Motorbike Association.
Road Deaths
In the first eight months of the year, 8,948 people were killed in traffic accidents, an increase of 6.1 percent from the same period last year, the GSO said in a September report.
One of the major reasons for accidents on Vietnam's roads is that the number of vehicles has increased because of strengthening economic expansion, while development in the road network hasn't kept pace, according to the GSO report.
Vietnam's economic growth quickened to 8.2 percent through the end of December from the same period a year earlier, the highest three-quarter figure in a decade. Gross domestic product has almost tripled from a decade ago.
The three biggest motorbike sellers in Vietnam are Honda, Yamaha, and the local unit of Taiwan's Sanyang, according to Hanoi-based Le Anh Tuan, vice chairman of the Vietnam Bicycle and Motorbike Association.
Tokyo-based Honda's sales in Vietnam rose to almost 900,000 units from January to October, compared with 700,000 for all of last year, according to Nguyen Phuong Anh, a press relations officer in Hanoi.
``The number of motorbikes has shot up over the last 10 years,'' Tuan said. ``The government has done the right thing in making wearing a helmet compulsory on the roads.''
By Beth Thomas - Bloomberg - December 14, 2007.
|