Tests find most motorbike helmets substandard in Vietnam
HANOI - Three-quarters of the motorbike helmets sold in southern Vietnam do not meet quality standards, local media said Wednesday ahead of a planned nationwide helmet law. When the Centre for Standardization and Quality Measurement tested 60 helmets purchased in local markets, it found 75 per cent failed to meet the quality standards set by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported in a front-page story.
The samples were randomly picked from markets in Ho Chi Minh City, including helmets made in Vietnam and those made in China.
The Ministry of Science and Technology responded by vowing to monitor the quality of helmets sold in markets nationwide by the end of the year, the newspaper said.
Quality of helmets has become an issue in Vietnam - where motorbikes make up more than 80 per cent of vehicles on the roads - as the country prepares for a nationwide regulation requiring helmets.
Large cities like Hanoi will make helmet wearing compulsory for state officials and employees on all roads from September 15 and on December 15 a nationwide helmet law will take effect.
Failing to wear a helmet when riding a motorbike will be subject to a cash fine of 50,000 dong (3.10 dollars).
However, critics say if the helmets available for sale are not of good quality, the new law might not save as many lives as intended.
The helmet law will be a sea-change in a country where only 3 per cent of drivers wear helmets, and there have been doubts as to whether Vietnam's communist government will be able to enforce the law.
Vietnam, with a population of 85 million people, has more than 21 million motorbikes, according to Asia Injury Prevention Foundation.
More than 75 per cent of brain trauma cases in Vietnam are caused by traffic accidents, and up to 98.6 per cent of the traffic accident victims hospitalized were not wearing helmets, according to the National Traffic Safety Committee.
Traffic accidents killed 8,000 people in Vietnam in the first seven months of this year, up eight per cent. Most of the accidents are motorbike crashes.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - September 12, 2007.
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