Call for all children to wear motorcycle helmets
EARLY tomorrow children from six schools in Bangkok will attend Save the Children's Race for Survival event to raise awareness about the importance of children wearing helmets on motorcycles.
The running race will be held at Bang Chak (Komolprasert-utid) School in Phasi Charoen district.
Despite achieving the fourth Millennium Development Goal by reducing the child mortality rate by two thirds between 1990 and 2015, Thais still faces many challenges. Riding motorcycles without a helmet leaves many children at risk of life-threatening injuries, disability and death.
Allison Zelkowitz, Save the Children’s country director in Thailand, said the organisation wants to minimise child road accident deaths and injuries by increasing parent, teacher, and child awareness of the risks associated with not wearing a helmet.
The goal is to ensure helmets are worn through positive peer influence, she said.
“Many parents believe children don’t need to wear helmets because they themselves are safe drivers and can hold onto their children if they get in an accident,” she said.
“But this is not the case. If they’re in a crash, children will fly off the motorcycle, and they may die if they aren’t wearing helmets.”
More than seven children are killed on the road every day in Thailand.
With an estimated 1.3 million children in Thailand travelling on motorcycles, the government has legislated that all people are required to wear a safety helmet but only 7 per cent of children do.
This leads to devastating results. Approximately 2,600 children are killed and more than 72,000 injured every year in road crashes.
