HEALTH-VIETNAM: Helmet Rule Saving Lives in Motorcycle Country
Helen Clark
HANOI, Mar 27 2008 (IPS) – Three months after Vietnam made the wearing of helmets mandatory for all motorcycle riders, doctors and activists say the law is proving to be a lifesaver in a country where two-wheelers are an important means of transport.
Vietnamese youth take the helmet rule lightly Credit: Peter Garnhum
Resolution 32 could not have come a day sooner given that half of the 13,000 deaths deaths in traffic accidents, last year, resulted from head injuries.
Indeed, the roar and whine of motorcycles may be said to define urban Vietnam. In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City 90 percent of all vehicles plying the roads are two-wheelers.
The law is effective avers Dr Nguyen Duc Hiep, a neurosurgeon at Viet Duc, one of the country s largest hospitals. Over 80 percent of patients who arrive after traffic accidents were wearing a helmet. With all the patients with helmets who have head injuries, the trauma is much less critical. They have the same accident, but they re safe, he said.
Though official statistics have not been released for Viet Duc, where all serious cases in Vietnam s north are transferred, the doctor keeps track of cases in A2-sized green ledgers and his daily biro scrawl paints a more interesting picture than most official tables.
#39 #39Twenty percent of patients (still) drive without helmets. They rationalise that they are a short distance away, or they re going out to the market to buy something and they don t need a helmet, the surgeon told IPS in an interview.
The laws are now strictly enforced. During the day, especially, it s rare to see anyone outside of the city s labyrinthine back alleys riding helmet-less. Those who do face a 150,000 VND fine (9.50 US dollars). Until recently many, especially the young, did not bother to do up the chinstraps of their half-shell helmets.
But with police increasingly crack down on infractions, compliance has been altogether better than in 2001. That earlier attempt failed with angry riders protesting against having to wear what was irreverently dubbed as rice cookers and forced the government to relent.
Even now, owing to cost, unfamiliarity with helmets and clammy tropical conditions, what most riders have on their heads are not the standard whole-head motorbike ones, but modified, bicycle helmets.
Nguyen Thi Hoa, 53, sells helmets on Thai Phien street in Hai Ba Trung district. Lined up like colourful Easter eggs in her shop, which used to sell fans, they cost between 50,000 VND and 120,000 VND (3.15 7.50 dollars). Helmets that cost above 100,000 VND are of acceptable quality, she says. Those which are uncertified for safety range from being a thin layer of shock-absorbing polystyrene to nothing but a plastic shell. Estimates vary, but fake helmets are thought to dominate about 70 80 percent of the market.
When asked her thoughts about selling substandard helmets she says, You have to sell the lower priced helmet. Helmets are required by law but many people have low income. They just want to avoid the police. The average yearly income in Vietnam is 835 dollars.
No one really cares and, as often happens in this one-party country, people simply want to appear to be following the rules.
Some people just buy a helmet because they want to avoid the police, but people who are wearing real helmets the number is rising, observes Dang, 23, a tour guide, sitting in a small café on Dien Tien Hoang street near Hanoi s iconic Hoan Kiem Lake the site of a swarm of motorbikes that passes for an intersection. It sees accidents daily.
What he says mirrors Greig Craft s views. An American who arrived in Hanoi in 1989 and witnessed the overnight switch from bicycles to motorbikes, Craft is the President of Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, a group dedicated to improving road safety in Vietnam.
Yes, people are going to wear a bucket to avoid a ticket, he says. (But) there will be a natural evolution. If I have to wear a helmet, I ll buy a good helmet. It forms a habit.
But there is one large hole in Vietnam s new helmet law it only applies to people over 14. It is believed that helmets are bad for youngsters, the supposed weight causing problems with their vertebrae. Thus as whole families speed by on the back of a 125cc Honda Wave, babes in arms wear nothing but netting over their skulls protection from pollution and insects.
During Tet this year (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) eight-year-old Le Xuan Han, a pupil in AIPF s Helmets for Kids programme was killed in an accident. Helmet-less, the family was only going to her grandmother s house.
But what might push helmets from an inconvenience that ruins a nicely gelled hairstyle to an indispensable item is Hanoi s startling trendiness. Helmets painted with stars or designed like pith helmets, complete with soaring eagles made from brass, are making inroads. Many of these fanciful items are also certified as safe.
It s more fashionable (to wear a helmet) now, says Dang.