Petition aims to get children to wear motorbike helmets

[louse1953]

The roads aren't dangerous at all,it's the irresponcible people on tbem.

[MrWorldwide]

Good to see they also explained how NOT to wear a helmet - as displayed by the model in the middle.

They are not models but a Korean pop band who are trying to stop the road carnage. I say good on them. If this works then well & good.

I thought it was just their schtick for 'Bar Bar Bar' - kinda weird to see them continuing to wear the helmets in vids other than their big hit. Still, if that's what it takes to get the kids' attention, all power to the people who decided to get them onboard.

[louse1953]

Good luck with the initiative. Though shouldn't it be directed at parents, or am I missing something.

The parents are too far gone.Start on the kids is the way to go,education.

[prakhonchai nick]

Maybe make it compulsory when a motor cycle is sold. Buyers must buy 2 children's helmets or they cant buy the bike. After that if caught with a child on the bike without a helmet fine. Second time confiscate the bike

I was given 2 free helmets by the dealer when I purchased my new Honda PCX last year, granted they were not childrens helmets but there again I don't have any children.

As for a 2000 Baht fine there's going to be a lot parents in Prison.

They'll find 2000baht once, then make damned sure their kids don''t get caught again!

[kimamey]

Good to see they also explained how NOT to wear a helmet - as displayed by the model in the middle.

Thanks for that. I must admit I hadn't noticed the helmets.

I'm not sure if it will work but at least they're trying.

[kimamey]

Never mind the helmets. We are too busy riding like this:

thaiboysonbike.jpg

Great picture and brilliant line at the bottom about the mosquito.

I bet if it rains they'll have an umbrella.

[ronthai]

It is of course a good initiative, but it starts at home.

Many parents still do not wear their helmets, or they do and the kid on the bike does not.

I used to daily pick up the kid from Thai friends from school (5-6 years old).

The first day I did it, after school I drove to a motorbike shop and bought him a helmet. Yes, the drive to the shop was with no helmet.

Back at home, he proudly showed Mum his new quality helmet for 550 baht (with some cartoon figure).

Mum asked me why I bought it. Well I am responsible for him when I pick him up and if something happens, I want him to be protected as much as possible.

Mum, sister and brother never use his little helmet when they drive him, but they do wear their helmets.

I gave up on teaching them, it is like talking to the empty brains, when it comes to logic and safety.

[Cardiff1963]

Schools can not even get kids to cut their own hair or to wear their uniform properly in school. They can not get kids to learn very much without copying their work and cheating on tests. How in the world does this group think that forcing a helmet on kids uniforms I'd go in to make the kid actually wear it outside of school? Helmets only cost 100- 200 baht. Cheap enough for parents to buy. This is not the issue. The issue is that enforcement is almost non existent on the street save for a couple of checkpoints with which a helmet is thrown on just prior to it and taken off immediately after it.

This group should be focusing on finding a way to get kids to be responsible and to actually learn to drive with proper habits. Perhaps a drivers education course would be better along with police who are on the street actually enforcing the law everywhere instead of just at checkpoints

And you used to cut your own hair?

[bheard]

There are laws in place.

Just enforce them!

[Mr Somtam]

It is of course a good initiative, but it starts at home.

Many parents still do not wear their helmets, or they do and the kid on the bike does not.

I used to daily pick up the kid from Thai friends from school (5-6 years old).

The first day I did it, after school I drove to a motorbike shop and bought him a helmet. Yes, the drive to the shop was with no helmet.

Back at home, he proudly showed Mum his new quality helmet for 550 baht (with some cartoon figure).

Mum asked me why I bought it. Well I am responsible for him when I pick him up and if something happens, I want him to be protected as much as possible.

Mum, sister and brother never use his little helmet when they drive him, but they do wear their helmets.

I gave up on teaching them, it is like talking to the empty brains, when it comes to logic and safety.

The boy probably has a very good amulet, hence no need for a helmet...

[glasswort]

If the child is pillion passenger fine the rider if the child, or anyone else for that matter, is not wearing a helmet.

[SunsetT]

I've got my kids and their mother to wear helmets but I cant get them to see that they must tighten the strap appropriately. They mostly just wear them with a loose strap or sometimes not done up at all.

[borrfors]

Why don´t the goverment make a deal with a good helmet manufacturer so families can buy good and cheap helmets. In my old country Sweden, the use of helmets in traffic is so widely acceptet that people who ride bikes or motorbikes without helmets are regarded as unresponsible idiots b y the population in general.

The thai government should also hand out reflex material for the kids to wear, and also educate them in proper behaviour when the are out in the trasffic. This is the only way to come to termes with the sadly high mortality rate4 in the thai traffic. To try to learn older people to act responsible is probably way harder than to educate children.

We should also have much more serious laws regarding people who drive without helmets. Why not impound their bikes until theu can show up with a proper helmet. Also rise the 200 baht penalty fee in a escalating scale, lets say first offence 500 baht, second 1000 baht, third 2000 baht and fourth time revoked drivers licence for a year.Then they have to make a new drivers licence from scratch.

My suggestion may sound harch, but the only thing people in general understand that it will cost money to not regard traffic safety. And imagine how much money the society loses every year when people who survive traffic accidents, but become invalides or mentally impaired dou to severe head injuries have to be treated and taken care of.

[casindonet]

What petition? Shouldn't it be a law long-long-long time ago?

[Maroon Watcher]

They will get a cheesy grin!

Have they considered to tell the policemen stationed at the school gates all over Thailand about the campaign?

[Cake Monster]

The children may as well put a banana leaf on their heads, because the helmets here in Thailand are of such a poor standard of manufacture , they are useless in an accident.

Also no amount of helmet wearing will save a child from the irresponsible people in " control " of the motorbikes. This is where money is better spent IMO, in the education of these people.

[Dannyboy666]

The children may as well put a banana leaf on their heads, because the helmets here in Thailand are of such a poor standard of manufacture , they are useless in an accident.

Also no amount of helmet wearing will save a child from the irresponsible people in " control " of the motorbikes. This is where money is better spent IMO, in the education of these people.

. It's better than nothing, it cushions the cranium a lil, Hi speed your done

[northernphil]

No licence, no tax, no lights and most of all ,no idea. They know it all so they can't be educated about riding bikes at school. " Tomorrow children , how to ride motorbikes safely " Children would take next day off as they know it all. The police could do what they get paid to do but opposite where I used to live was a police sergeant and he and his son and wife all used to go to the town on their bikes and no hat on any of them. Only time the law is enforced is by the roundabout at the end of the month when the BIbs wife need to go shopping at BIg C. Kids ride up and down the main drag in my little town with no lights at night ,no insurance I wager and yep, no idea.

Ah but the ones that really get up my nose are the pink ferlung. They come from a country no doubt where they have to by law wear a stack hat. But over here they are clever and to show it they can ride about without a hat. No hat, get pi$$ed fall off ...........one less on the road. Oh my wife will not go the 2k to the town without wearing a hat, I have to give her a good tongue lashing to keep reminding her though. Her scooter is a Susuki Smash, good name for Thailand

[noodle]

please, please all you lot go home to the namby pamby socialist states you plainly adore.

[Lokie]

In lot of countries you cannot buy a road bike (incl scooters) from a dealer without a valid licence,

So how about they enforce No One rides unless is of legal age and is qualified? also anyone with no helmet gets a fine...

Yep never gonna happen!

[stevenl]

In lot of countries you cannot buy a road bike (incl scooters) from a dealer without a valid licence,

So how about they enforce No One rides unless is of legal age and is qualified? also anyone with no helmet gets a fine...

Yep never gonna happen!

Is that so? So somebody without lucense can not buy a bike as a gift?

Looking forward to your list of the many countries where this is the case.

[apetley]

Since 2007 Vietnam has enforced compulsory helmets for all including children. The result is a 50% decrease in brain trauma injuries. The link below is a great article on what can be done if the will is there by the Government . However , like most things here in Thailand , it's all talk but no action.

My next door neighbour is a neurosurgeon at a large Government hospital. You will never meet a person with stronger opinions about helmets as he faces the result of not wearing them everyday.

http://www.ssrc.org/workspace/images/crm/new_publication_3/%7B5dbb6a15-2e6f-df11-9d32-001cc477ec84%7D.pdf

I recently bought a Vietnamese satellite box as it carried Eurosport.

Flicking between channels it is obvious how much Govt advertising and initiatives there are to promote the wearing of crash helmets especially for children.

Now my Vietnamese language skills are even worse than my Thai but it is also obvious that there is a scheme to make discounted helmets available to youngsters.

Thailand could do a lot worse than look to the success achieved by one of its near neighbours.

[Tomtomtom69]

Since 2007 Vietnam has enforced compulsory helmets for all including children. The result is a 50% decrease in brain trauma injuries. The link below is a great article on what can be done if the will is there by the Government . However , like most things here in Thailand , it's all talk but no action.

My next door neighbour is a neurosurgeon at a large Government hospital. You will never meet a person with stronger opinions about helmets as he faces the result of not wearing them everyday.

http://www.ssrc.org/workspace/images/crm/new_publication_3/%7B5dbb6a15-2e6f-df11-9d32-001cc477ec84%7D.pdf

Yep Vietnam could implement their law almost overnight (even though previous attempts a few years earlier were not successful at all) yet Thailand, a country with more resources may never in 100 years implement a similar law.

[MikeN]

Finally a truly common sense proposal. Dearly hope is succeeds even marginally. Past Governments and present should have been subsidizing helmets for the benefit of the population, instead of rice schemes, or rubber farm getting free money.

Yes, give out free helmets and make it plain that anybody not wearing them WILL get fined. No doubt the govt would get half the cost back before Thais actually realised they were serious though.

[Shiver]

I was with a girl for a short while, and she did the usual thing of not wearing a helmet in the city after evening. I kept encouraging her to wear her helmet, and she said she didn't need to.

I said in no uncertain terms that if she wound up in ICU from an accident and she wasn't wearing her helmet, that I categorically would *not* be there for her.

She left me soon afterwards, citing that I didn't care about her. Figure that one.

[DM07]

2 Words: law enforcement!

The one reason why it should work...but never will!