Vietnam’s Helmet Resistance
December 4th, 2007 Posted in Cheap Asia Travel, Destination reports
On December 15, a law goes into effect in Vietnam that everyone on a motorbike is supposed to be wearing a helmet. But what happens if nobody complies? That’s the scenario police could be facing soon, per this Time article Fashion Police vs. Traffic Police.
When I was in Vietnam about nine years ago, there were an insane number of motorbikes on the road and it was sometimes hard to find a way to cross the street on foot. “Times the traffic in the 1990s by ten,” a friend who just returned from there told me.
I thought he was exaggerating. According to the Time article, though, “Fifteen years ago, the country had only 500,000 motorbikes; today, there are 22 million.”
As you would imagine, this is not the safest situation for riders without helmets. “…with 13,000 Vietnamese having died in traffic accidents last year alone, 80% of them from head injuries, the purpose of the new law is to save lives. ”
Yeah, the riders are saying they don’t want to put on a helmet because it’s hot (true) and they won’t look cool (hmmm, seen any Asian action flicks lately?).
I have my own theory as to why some of them don’t want to: it makes it much harder to focus on the purses they’re trying to snatch. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let’s just say you should get one of those Pacsafe theft-proof bags if you’re planning on strolling the streets of Saigon.
One Response to “Vietnam’s Helmet Resistance”
By Eric on Dec 5, 2007
I was in Vietnam about 6 weeks ago. You’re already supposed to wear a helmet on the “highway” - the new law means you have to in cities too. I’d say maybe 80% of people were wearing helmets (not all of which would meet Western safety standards!) but almost nobody was wearing them in the cities. And as you say, there are a lot of motorbike riders.
In Saigon, what I noticed is that there are quite a lot of cars on the roads too - I was told that the numbers have increased a lot too - which makes it even more dangerous for a motorcyclist to get in an accident.