As many as 2 million helmets will be presented to first graders nationwide in the 2023 - 2024 academic year under a programme launched by the National Traffic Safety Committee, the Ministry of Education and Training, and Honda Vietnam on September 25.
Addressing the launch at the Phu Do Primary School in Hanoi, General Director of Honda Vietnam Koji Sugita said the company pledges to take every possible measure for realising Honda’s global target of no traffic deaths related to Honda motorcycles and automobiles by 2050, and the Vietnamese Government’s target of no deaths related to road accidents by 2045.
He noted wearing qualified helmets is a practical and important solution to protect motorcyclists and their families. It is crucial for helping first graders, who are in an important age group of awareness formation, adopt the habit of wearing qualified helmets on a motorcycle.
A broader target that Honda Vietnam aims at is to promote the habit of wearing helmets among motorcyclists in the country, he went on, adding that it will continue providing traffic safety training for students and their parents and improving traffic safety awareness via public relations activities.
The programme was previously carried out nationwide by the three abovementioned parties from 2018 to 2020. After a hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Honda Vietnam resumed this programme in Hanoi, Can Tho, and Ho Chi Minh City in the 2022 - 2023 academic year.
The 2 million helmets to be presented in this year’s programme will raise the total so far to nearly 8.6 million.
Khuat Viet Hung, Vice Chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee, said though traffic accidents in Vietnam have decreased considerably, the numbers of related deaths and injured persons remain excessive.
National statistics reveal that about 7,000 people in the country, including 600 - 700 children, lose their lives to traffic accidents every year. Meanwhile, 100 - 150 children sustain life-long injuries due to traffic accidents annually.
The Party and State always view reducing traffic accidents and easing the pain caused by the accidents as a highly important political task, Hung noted. He called on parents to lead good examples for their children to follow and teachers to constantly remind students to wear helmets when traveling by motorcycle or electric bike./.
