16 October 2009
Donated Helmets Saving Cyclists’ Lives in Vietnam
Washington — A small, modern factory in Vietnam that makes tough but lightweight helmets suited for the tropics has taken safety a step further by promoting safety laws for motorbikes and donating helmets to children.
For its donation and safety awareness campaigns — which helped convince the Vietnamese government in December 2007 to make helmets mandatory for motorbike drivers and passengers — the Protec helmet factory has been named a finalist for the U.S. State Department’s 2009 Award for Corporate Excellence.
Protec is owned by the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation (AIP Foundation), a U.S. nonprofit organization. All profits from the factory go to the AIP Foundation to support helmet donations and traffic safety campaigns.
Children are the most vulnerable passengers on motorbikes, the primary mode of transportation in Southeast Asia. Each year, some 4,200 children are killed in traffic accidents in Vietnam alone; many deaths could be prevented by helmet use. In 2000, the AIP Foundation launched the Helmets for Kids program. More than 400,000 Protec helmets have been distributed to children at more than 140 schools in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.
The AIP Foundation has documented 381 cases of children who were saved because they were wearing Protec helmets during serious accidents. Ten months after helmets became mandatory, there were 1,400 fewer road fatalities and 2,200 fewer serious injuries in Vietnam compared with the previous year, according to the World Health Organization.
Protec designed a high-quality, affordable tropical helmet that is cool and lightweight. Many drivers had complained that the full-face helmets on the market were hot and heavy, restricted vision and hearing, and were not fashionable. Protec produced an innovative vented helmet that met the unique climatic and traffic demands in Vietnam.
The factory, which can produce 500,000 helmets annually, employs 150 workers, one-third of whom are disabled. The enterprise was established partly through grants from shipping company American President Lines, energy company British Petroleum and three charitable-giving organizations: Atlantic Philanthropies, the Starr Foundation and the Freeman Foundation.
Road accidents are among the fastest-growing causes of sudden death and disability in the developing world. According to the AIP Foundation, some 44 percent of the world’s road deaths occur in Asia, where motorbike use is growing. Failure to use helmets increases the risk of head injury for motorbike and cycle riders by a factor of three, and helmets reduce fatal and serious head injuries by as much as 80 percent.
The Award for Corporate Excellence recognizes U.S. businesses for advancing good corporate citizenship, innovation and democratic principles. This year, 11 finalists were selected from 42 nominations submitted by American ambassadors around the world.
For more information, see the Web sites of the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation and Protec.
