Forum (Spotlight Weekly)

‘Nepal Has An Impressive Record In Helmet-Rule Compliance’

— GREIG CRAFT

GREIG CRAFT, president of the Hanoi-based Asian Injury Prevention Foundation and vice-chairman of the Asia-Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce, was recently in Kathmandu. An American citizen, Craft works to reduce road fatalities in Asia by, among other things, promoting safe and reliable helmets for motorcyclists. He spoke to KESHAB POUDEL on various safety matters. Excerpts:

How do you view the recent step taken by government making helmets mandatory for pillion riders?

This is my third visit to Nepal. I am very pleased by the new law requiring passengers as well as drivers to wear helmets. I have noticed exceptionally high compliance of the rule. My only concern, which I raised this week with government officials, is that many of the helmets are not certified They are not quality helmets. Otherwise, very good steps have been taken.

How effective is the helmet in preventing injury?

Helmets are essential. I get frustrated sometimes that we don't have much education in the developing world about the helmets. They are as necessary as wearing shoes or brushing your teeth everyday. Helmets should be part of everyone's life, whenever they get on a motorbike. The reason is that the brain is basically like an egg. People do not realize that even a minor blow on your head can either kill you or create serious brain damage. Wearing the helmet is an essential first step to protect your brain. A lot of statistics say you increase your chances of avoiding brain damage by 80 percent by just wearing a helmet.

You have met many people in Nepal and discussed various matters. What are your observations regarding public awareness?

If we compare the situation of Nepal with Vietnam, there are many challenges in Vietnam, since we started our work after the problems had become serious. Vietnam went from 5,000 motorbikes 10 years ago to over 10 million today. We think Nepal has a very unique opportunity. Yes, there are many problems here regarding motorcycle safety, but they are not yet out of control. So it's like a storm coming. Your people and leaders are very lucky in that you can take action to protect yourself from the storm beforehand. But I will be candid. Obviously, there are a lot of problems since people don't understand. They have not been taught proper road safety behavior and they have not learned to drive properly. So these are the big issues Nepal needs to address.

You have traveled in different parts of Asia. How do you view the use of helmets in Nepal?

As I said earlier, the compliance rate here is excellent. We must also give credit to the police who have been doing a great job on that score. I don't think there is any other country in South Asia or Southeast Asia where there is such exceptional compliance. But the problem is once again, whether the people are wearing good-quality helmets. It is also interesting that children have begun wearing helmets.

How does Asia Injury Prevention Foundation work toward this end?

We are a non-profit organization specializing in intervention in road safety. For example, we started in Vietnam. We have a major project there which has included a tiny, new lightweight tropical helmet.

Why do you need tropical helmets?

The reason is that Vietnam has a hot climate and people refuse to wear heavy helmets, which they call 'rice cookers'. We actually went down and designed a helmet and raised funds to build the world's first non-profit helmet factory making inexpensive but light-weight helmets. We have also provided technical assistance to the government of Vietnam. We have helped them and co-authored their helmet standard. We have also carried out a public awareness campaign on the importance wearing helmets and safe road behavior such as using the zebra crossing. We do advocacy, direct intervention and production of new helmets.

How do you see the quality of helmets Nepalese riders are wearing?

The helmets look very good but we have done a lot of testing since the last six months when we started visiting Nepal for our study. We have taken a lot of helmets back to our laboratory and tested them. Frankly speaking, this is our only disappointment† - that the quality of helmets is not very good. Such helmets do not necessarily prevent injuries in an accident. They look very good but their protective value is not high. We believe that the government understands this. But I must say the government strategy has been good in that it has encouraged riders to wear helmets. The next step can be to make sure that importers are bringing in quality helmets.

How much do high-quality helmets cost?

I have not done a detailed survey, but I have noticed here in Nepal that the cost of helmets ranges US$4 to $10 or more. There is quite a range of helmets here. I don't think that is an issue. People who can afford to buy a motorcycle should be able to buy good-quality helmets.

How do you rate the outcome of your visit to Nepal?

It is has had a very positive outcome. There are many areas of safety we need to address. The problems here in Nepal, like in all other developing countries, is that you cannot do everything at once. I believe that road safety is an important issue like AIDS as it affects poverty. So when donors and your government have been doing so much to alleviate poverty, road accidents neutralize that. Because when you lose the head of the household, you will lose the bread-winner and whole family is sucked back into poverty. There are greater problems in your public health system, which cause tremendous stress and strain. If you go down to the hospital, you know it is filled with patients with head injuries. In that case, your doctors are not going to do other work. That is going to pose a huge burden. So what we have proposed to your government is that we are hoping to carry out two initiatives. For six months, we have been doing analysis. Now in next step we are going to do feasibility study to perhaps create an institute for very high quality driver training and to work with the police to improve the licensing process and training for the traffic police. In parallel to that, we are hoping to launch a five-year national public awareness campaign to remind everyone every day about safe behavior on roads, about wearing seat belts and helmets and about not driving under the influence of alcohol. Those are the two initiatives we hope to carry out in Nepal.