WHO calls for ‘quality’ helmet use to save lives
THE World Health Organisation (WHO) have warned that a rapid increase in motorcycle use and the low use of high-quality, safe helmets may result in a spike in road deaths in low and middle income countries.
In order to avoid this, WHO recently launched a new manual which offers strategies that will increase the use of helmets.
The second edition of the Helmets Manual offers guidance to help authorities establish the laws, regulations and actions needed to increase the use of safe, quality helmets to save lives.
“Head trauma is the leading cause of death for motorcycle riders, and safe, quality helmets reduce the risk of death by over six times and of brain injury by up to 74 per cent, yet the use of quality helmets in many lowand middle-income countries remains low, even as the number of motorcycles increases rapidly,” it stated.
Matts-Ake Belin, global lead for the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 at WHO, said that factors holding back the use of helmets included a lack of safe, quality and affordable helmets, along with a lack of available helmets for children, weak law enforcement and hot weather.
“In addition, helmets that are not properly fastened also increase the risk of death and injury,” he added.
“As motorcycles proliferate at an astonishing rate, especially in low and middle-income countries, urgent action is needed to stave off a rapid rise in deaths and injuries in the coming years,” he warned.
Matts-Ake added that to reduce all deaths from road crashes, actions that aim to increase the use of helmets must be applied as part of a wider shift to a safe systems approach to road safety and mobility. The safe systems approach recognised that road transport is a complex system with many interconnecting elements that all affect each other.
In 2006, the WHO, the World Bank, the FIA Foundation, and the Global Road Safety Partnership released the first edition of the Helmet Road Safety Manual. In the past 17 years, new data, developments, and research have influenced both helmet safety standards and manufacturing practices, hence the launch of the updated edition.
Prime Minister Hun Sen regularly appeals to the public to do what they can to reduce the number of deaths and injuries that occur on the Kingdom’s roads.
He has also advised relevant state institutions, including the police, to educate the public about traffic laws and regulations.
The government introduced the Draft National Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety (DNPDARS) 2021-2030, seen as an important roadmap for preventing and reducing traffic casualties.
The draft plan was designed to reduce traffic casualties by 50 per cent by 2030, with a focus on two goals: Reducing the number of deaths and injuries from traffic accidents and increasing the efficiency of road traffic safety work.