CSIP & Halliburton Helmets to Save Kids Lives (phase I)
Overview
Road accidents are a major problem facing all countries today. There is an increasing trend in deaths and injuries related to road crashes. The World Health Organization found that 500 children die in road crashes daily, or one death every three minutes. WHO’s Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015 showed that Thailand ranked second in total road traffic crashes in the world (36.2 per 100,000 population), and ranks first in total road accidents among ASEAN countries.
Traffic accident is the second leading cause of child death in Thailand, approximately 1,000 cases per year. During the 15 years period from 2000 to 2014, there were 15,601 children aged below 15 died of traffic accident. Major causes of traffic accident involve young motorcyclists (in fact, children aged below 15 are prohibited by law to motorcycle), drunken drivers, driving at high speed, and not wearing a helmet (in fact, riders and passengers are enforced by law to wear a helmet during motorcycling). Based on the survey conducted by CSIP, it showed that 93.2% of young passengers did not wear helmets. According to the WHO, over 2,600 children die and more than 72,000 are injured on Thailand’s roads every year. However, only 7% of children wear helmets when riding motorcycles, even when their parents do (Source from Save the Children).
In order to save children lives from head injuries from motorcycle crashes, Child Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center (CSIP) in collaboration with Halliburton and Safe Kids Worldwide, with the cooperation of the Office of Songkhla Primary Education Area Zone 1 had selected ‘Anubansongkhla School’ in joining the project CSIP & Halliburton Helmets to Save Kids Lives to increase the use of helmet during motorcycling to/from school among children by encouraging stakeholders to take actionable steps to make children safe on the roads.
