Vietnam - January 13, 2015

Today, the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), Vietnam’s governmental authority on road safety, launched a National Child Helmet Action Plan to promote child helmet use across the country. The National Child Helmet Action Plan is coordinated by the NTSC and its department members, including Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Public Security, and supported by many organizations, including the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation, Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), World Health Organization (WHO), The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), The UPS Foundation, and FIA Foundation.

In Vietnam, even though helmet use is mandatory by law for both adults and children over the age of 6, child helmet use has remained significantly lower than adult use with only 1 in 3 children in major cities wearing helmets. The National Child Helmet Action Plan seeks to raise public awareness and create a transformational shift in public attitude towards child helmet use and compliance with the child helmet regulation. The key message of the Action Plan is “Love you child, provide a helmet,” which supports the 3rd UN Global Road Safety Week conducted in 2015 themed “Children and Road Safety.” The National Child Helmet Action Plan consists of closely coordinated interventions to raise the child helmet wearing rate throughout the nation. Main activities of the Action Plan include public awareness-raising and mass media communications on child helmet use, school-based education, and increased police enforcement on a national scale to crack down on violations of the child helmet regulation.

A week of “enhanced enforcement” is scheduled from April 6th to 9th, 2015. During this week, police patrols will be conducted around schools and drivers whose children are not wearing helmets on motorcycles will be stopped and given a reminder. All violation cases will be reported to the schools to take further action. Starting April 10th, 2015, traffic police and public security forces will strictly fine violators of the child helmet regulation and will continue patrols on child helmet use as part of standard enforcement protocol.