HELMETS save lives
Protec helmets were given to over 200 students from Pasig, Mandaluyong and Quezon City; once classes start, the rest of the helmets will be donated to other schoolchildren who regularly ride with their parents on motorcycles.
In a country where not wearing a crash helmet is the norm, making the citizenry understand the importance of wearing one is a difficult task. But this does not deter the Federation Internaionale de l’Automobile (FIA) Foundation, the Asian Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Automobile Association Philippines (AAP) from pushing the Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative (GHVI), an advocacy aiming to promote motorcycle helmet wearing in developing countries all over the world.
Motorcycles have become a daily means of transportation in many Asian countries. Unfortunately, the wearing of helmets is often disregarded, thus the growing number of motorcycle-related road crashes injuring or killing youngsters. To address this problem, the AIP Foundation launched the Helmet for Kids (HFK) program of the GHVI which was piloted in Vietnam in November 2000 to encourage helmet use among children and educate them on road safety.
Helmets for kids
To launch the HFK in the Philippines, the AIP and FIA Foundations, GHVI’s co-founders, brought to Manila Michelle Yeoh, the star of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and former James Bond girl who is now the Make Roads Safe Global Ambassador of the FIA Foundation. After speaking at the transport forum of the ADB, Ms Yeoh distributed crash helmets to elementary students from Pasig, Mandaluyong and Quezon City during the Helmets for Kids ceremony organized by AAP at the Department of Education (DepEd) in Pasig on May 26, 2010.
Make Roads Safe Global Ambassador Michelle Yeoh signs the Protec helmets donated to elementary students from Pasig, Mandaluyong and Quezon City.
“Parents always want the best for their children, and if your child is a passenger on a motorbike the best you can do is make sure they always wear a helmet. So many deaths and head injuries can be prevented, here in the Philippines and across the world, if we can get across this simple message: Helmets save lives,” Ms Yeoh said.
Education Secretary Mona Valisno, who attended the HFK event, expressed her gratitude for the donation of helmets that was in time for the opening of classes on June 15. “We cannot and must not stop our students from attending their classes; instead we should encourage them to value education as a priceless opportunity. At the same time, we have to keep them safe and guarded from the potential dangers along the way to school and back to their respective homes,” Ms Valisno said.
Initially, elementary students from Pasig, Mandaluyong and Quezon City who ride motorcycles with their parents to school benefited from the program. Over 400,000 helmets have already been distributed to children in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos. According to the AIP Foundation, more than 300 children were saved by their helmets from serious injury during road crashes.
The HFK ceremony was also attended by AIP Foundation president Greig Craft, Oleg Tonkonojenkov of ADB, Land Transportation Office chief Alberto Suansing, AIP Foundation executive director Miriam Sidik, FIA Foundation deputy director general Saul Billingsley, AAP president Augusto C. Lagman, AAP vice-president Johnny Angeles, AAP treasurer Jacinto Mantaring, Jr. and AAP director Aida Sevilla-Mendoza.
Reality check
Some sectors may perceive the distribution of crash helmets for kids as a way of encouraging parents to bring their children to ride with them on motorcycles. AAP Road Safety Committee Chairman Johnny Angeles pointed out that parents were already bringing their kids without helmets to ride with them even before the GHVI project was brought to the Philippines. “It is already happening in our country,” said Angeles. “Every day, we see motorcycle drivers and back riders, children and adults alike, dangerously plying the roads without helmets. We want to prevent transport related injuries involving motorcycles. Distributing helmets is better than doing nothing,”
“The program does not necessarily encourage children to ride motorcycles.” AAP president Lagman emphasized during the HFK ceremony. “We insist that three conditions must be met before children would be allowed to ride motorcycles: 1) the children can wrap their arms around the one who is riding the motorcycle; 2) their feet must be able to reach the motorcycle pegs and 3) they should always wear helmets,”
According to the accident and injuries data of the Department of Health, out of the 6,503 injury cases recorded on the fourth quarter of 2009, 1,802 were caused by motor vehicles, 41.4 percent of which involved motorcycles, tricycles and bicycles. The DOH data revealed that only 7.3 percent of those injured wore helmets.
On March 23, 2010, the government approved Republic Act No. 10054, also known as the “Motorcycle Helmet Act of 2009.” The Act mandates the use of standard protective motorcycle helmets by motorcycle riders, including the back riders, at all times during short or long trips on any type of road or highway.
Not an ordinary helmet
The helmets distributed by the GHVI are exclusively manufactured by the Protec Helmet Factory in Vietnam, the world’s first non-profit helmet factory.
The “Tropical Helmet” produced by Protec is designed to make wearing helmets more comfortable for Asians. The Tropical Helmet undergoes a series of tests including crash, puncture, velocity drop, and testing of the chin straps and buckles to ensure that it meets Vietnamese, European and Australian standards.
The hardened, molded liner of the Tropical Helmet is made of expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads. This protects the motorcycle rider’s brain and acts as a shock absorber in a crash. The helmet’s skid-resistant shells for the liners, weather visors, lower shells and buckles are made from special polycarbonate sheets that are vacuum-formed from master molds.
Other road safety initiatives
After the HFK ceremony, Ms Yeoh, Billinglsey and the AAP directors went to the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman for the unveiling of the Road Safety Park marker. In partnership with Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., AAP will build the Road Safety Park in UP to help educate schoolchildren on how to behave as future drivers and pedestrians.
The group was toured around the one-way Academic Oval of the UP Traffic Safety Model Zone on board an e-jeepney to the UP National Center for Transportation Studies (UP-NCTS) where the first DVD training module for public utility drivers was shown. The DVD training modules are made in partnership with the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board and UP-NCTS with the assistance of the UP College of Mass Communication and the sponsorship of Toyota Motor Philippines. It will cover basic driving skills, traffic rules and regulations, passenger and customer relations, ethical driving and emergency procedures.