Motorbike helmet campaign aims to make Bangkok a model city
A campaign to make Bangkok a model of a “100 per cent safety-helmet using city” was launched on Thursday.
The campaign, equipped with 1,500 motorcycle helmets, will see traffic police loaning helmets to motorists arrested for failing to wear one, in order to boost road safety and save lives.
The campaign coincides with the New Year 2018 holidays' seven-day road accident-monitoring period starting December 28. Under the campaign, cyclists can borrow the helmets after being given a hefty traffic ticket and watching a mandatory video clip made to raise road safety awareness. They must return the helmets within seven days.
Metropolitan Police Bureau commissioner Pol Lt-General Chanthep Sesawech presided over the campaign launch held at the Traffic Police Command on Bangkok's Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road. He said 75 per cent of Bangkok motorcyclists wore helmet while riding, and so the campaign has a chance of reaching 100-per-cent adherence to the law.
According to the World Health Organisation, road traffic crashes are among the 10 leading causes of death. Nearly 1.3 million people die worldwide in road crashes each year, with another 20-50 million are injured or disabled. The United Nations has called for member countries to implement measures to reduce road accidents by up to 50 per cent by the end of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.
Thailand was unofficially acknowledged on the World Atlas website last month as having the world’s highest fatality rate in road accidents. Thailand’s estimated road accident death rate is 36.2 per 100,000 (previously top-ranked country Libya had many of its road re-evaluated to reflect violent deaths in its civil war).
Thailand has a proportionally large number of motorcycle riders, and they commonly share the same roads as high-speed cars, buses, and trucks, arguably leading to a greater risk of death and injuries for motorcyclists.
A police survey in 2016 concluded that 10,924 motorcycles were involved in Bangkok crashes, with many bikers failing to wear a helmet. The report noted that a helmet-use campaign would be a key preventive measure against road fatalities and serious head-injury cases.
