Speaking at a conference on wearing helmets in HCMC Thursday, Tran Quang Phuong said the city government had laid down the policy of the obligatory wearing of helmets on all city roads instead of only 18 routes as at present.

“The city is considering a suitable time, perhaps this year, to realize that policy,” Phuong told the seminar, jointly held by the HCMC Traffic Safety Committee and the city Fatherland Front Committee.

In the coming time, the city would call on all officials, civil servants and members of political organizations and unions to wear helmets while riding motorbikes, as an example for other city drivers, he said.

Phuong also revealed the city would impose higher fines on those not wearing motorbike helmets on the current obliged routes to VND80,000-100,000 from VND20,000-40,000 (1 US$= VND16,000).

Consensus

Most participants in the conference are of the same opinion that wearing helmets is a must to reduce brain traumas in motorbike accidents.

A representative of the Asian Injury Prevention Foundation (AIPF), Ms. Mirjam Sidik, said the number of people injured and killed in motorbike accidents would rank third among the risks around the world, much higher than that of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

She said AIPF would launch next month a series of promotional programs to raise public awareness of wearing helmets in Vietnam.

The death toll caused by traffic accidents in Vietnam has increased sharply in recent years, reaching 13,000 last year alone, with 70 percent due to motorbike accidents.

Pham Van Thinh, head of the HCMC Traffic Police Department, told the conference that all of the people killed in motorbike accidents in the city last year were not wearing helmets.

Reported by N. Thuy – Translated by Thu Thuy