All Hail Helmets!!!

Riding a motorbike is an integral part of life for many locals in urban Vietnam, so having proper safety gear should be taken very seriously. Surprisingly, a mandatory helmet law was only introduced in Vietnam in late 2007. Before that, only a small proportion of all motorcyclists were wearing helmets. After the law was introduced, there was nearly a 100% turnaround in people wearing helmets, although they did so more for law compliance and avoiding fines, rather than safety reasons.

Sadly, Vietnam has one of the world`s highest rates in traffic fatality. In 2007, there were about 13,000 traffic-related deaths. More than half of those deaths were due to head injuries. Since the implementation of the helmet law, traffic deaths have reduced drastically. However, the reality is that traffic accidents still remain high. For the first 8 months of this year, there has been 422 traffic deaths in Ho Chi Minh City, or 6,128 traffic deaths nationwide.

Research shows that wearing helmets could reduce the risk of traffic deaths by 42% and of injuries by 69% in a crash. Therefore, purchasing a high-quality helmet is not only mandatory by law, but it is extremely vital.

We decided to upgrade our helmets the other day. Helmets are very easy to come by, but they range drastically in quality and in price. The lower-end helmets, which can be found on the streets, range from about 20,000 VND to 70,000 VND ($1-$3.50 USD), and it seems (to my eye) that most motorcyclists own these. Better quality helmets go from about 100,000-200,000 VND ($5-$10), to upwards of 300,000VND ($15) for high-quality all the way up to 800,000VND ($40) for superior quality and even reaching up to 2,000,000 VND at some specialty stores for extreme top-of-the-line fancy helmets ($100).

We stopped at a brightly-lit colorful tiny helmet store on the way home at night-time and opted for matching helmets with a pull-down visor. It cost 320,000 VND each (about $16). The visors are great not only for protecting ur eyes from dust and air particles, but as we found out, as a shield against hard rain pouring down on our faces, making it actually possible to see when we ride in rain!