Illustration photo. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – The helmet use rate of children in Vietnam increased 11 percent from 36 percent in March 2014 to 47 percent in December last year, as heard in the year-end review of the National Child Helmet Action Plan on February 24.
The review conference was organised in Hanoi by the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), National Traffic Police (C67), the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to preventing road injuries and fatalities in low and middle-income countries.
According to the NTSC, in 2015, more than 11,800 violations of the helmet wearing code were fined 1 billion VND (44,690 USD), and nearly 320 motorbikes and motor-bicycles were seized.
Last year, the number of road accidents involving children aged 6-11 decreased 39.4 percent compared to the same period in 2014, the committee announced.
The conference was a platform for delegates from the government agencies to discuss key results and share their experience after one year of the action plan’s implementation.
They also proposed ways to develop the plan for the upcoming period between 2016 and 2020.
Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training Nguyen Hiep Thong urged for more involvement by parents in increasing the number of children wearing helmets. Parents should remind their children to routinely use helmets, as they would ask them to brush their teeth daily, he said.
The National Child Helmet Action Plan was launched in January 2015 to increase the rate of children wearing motorcycle helmets through improving police enforcement, school-based education and public campaigns.
The NTSC also initiated a campaign to provide free standard helmets for children and impoverished people nationwide in May last year. After six months, about 20 organisations and businesses had donated 100,000 helmets, worth 21 billion VND (938,500 USD), to the campaign.-VNA
