Nearly 2 million first graders at elementary schools across the country will be presented with free helmets that meet safety standards during the 2018-2019 academic year.

School children presented with free helmets at the launch ceremony. (Photo: atgt.vn)

The move is part of a programme which was jointly launched by the Vietnam National Traffic Safety Committee (VNTSC), the Ministry of Education and Training, and Honda Vietnam in Hanoi on July 5^th, with the aim of increasing the number of children wearing helmets.

Addressing the event, Minister of Transport and VNTSC Vice Chairman, Nguyen Van The, quoted the fact that every four minutes a child is prematurely lost on the roads of this world. In Vietnam, traffic accidents cause around 2,000 deaths among children every year, triple the number of other countries in the region.

He stressed that, over recent years, the entire Vietnamese political system has been involved in reducing the number of traffic deaths.

However, he acknowledged that the rate of children wearing helmets remains low, at around 35-40 per cent, thus he called on more drastic participation from the agencies concerned in improving the situation.

Honda Vietnam General Director Toshio Kuwahara said the programme was launched to deal with the fact that most of Vietnamese children don’t wear helmets when they travel on motorbikes with their parents.

A helmet is only a tool and it is important to teach children how to use such tool, he said, pledging that Honda Vietnam will continue to work with the Vietnamese Government to ensure traffic safety.

According to statistics, after ten years of the mandatory helmet law, more than 90 per cent of adults observe the law, which has helped cut the number of traffic accident facilities to below 9,000 each year.

However, the number of children wearing helmets remains low, which is the leading reason for the increasing rate of child injuries cased by traffic accidents.

The helmets will be presented to Vietnamese children from September 5^th, 2018./.

VNF