H.E. Hun Manet, Special Representative of the Prime Minister of Cambodia.
Saul Billingsley, FIA Foundation, and Mick Ballesteros, CDC, with children at the ‘Helmets for Kids’ event.
A new campaign has been launched by the Cambodia Helmet Vaccine Initiative to raise awareness of the need for motorcycle passengers to wear crash helmets.
The ‘Always Care. Always Wear a Helmet’ campaign comes ahead of the anticipated introduction of a new passenger helmet law by the Cambodian Government. The campaign is being implemented by the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation, in close collaboration with the National Road Safety Committee (NRSC) and the General Commissariat of National Police, Ministry of Interior (MoI). The FIA Foundation is one of the major donors supporting the initiative. Representatives of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is providing data and evaluation support to the initiative, were also present at the launch.
Mirjam Sidik, Executive Director of the AIP Foundation, launching the campaign at a press conference in Phnom Penh, explained the rationale of the initiative:
“Research shows that Cambodians understand that wearing helmets can be the difference between dying and surviving a motorcycle accident. However, adult and child passengers frequently ride without helmets when they travel short distances or close to home. The truth is that most accidents happen then, and these choices are costing Cambodia thousands of lives.”
To combat this problem, the new public awareness campaign focuses on reminding Cambodians that putting a helmet on their passengers is a simple act of caring, one among the many they routinely perform for their loved ones every day. The campaign’s logo, both a helmet and a heart, is intended to illustrate this simple but life-saving concept. “Always care. Always wear a helmet.” will utilize public events, television commercials, radio spots, billboards, posters and more to communicate the immense savings, in both lives and costs, that can result from putting helmets on all motorcycle riders. “Always care. Always wear a helmet” is the second phase of a planned 45 month passenger helmet campaign which aims to advocate for passenger helmet legislation and increase helmet use rates among motorcycle passengers in Cambodia.
Saul Billingsley, Deputy Director General of the FIA Foundation, also attended the press launch, and welcomed the initiative as a significant contribution to achieving the global goal of the UN Decade of Action:
“Putting helmets on the heads of passengers can significantly impact this country, but it is also a global issue. With the United Nations’ Decade of Action for Road Safety we have the opportunity to bring together a coalition of activists from non-profit organizations, government offices, and the private sector to save lives, costs, and prevent suffering. I would particularly encourage motorcycle manufacturers to provide helmets to families whenever a motorcycle is sold.”
The campaign launch coincided with a ‘Helmets for Kids’ event sponsored by the Australian Government which saw hundreds of schoolchildren presented with motorcycle crash helmets. The Special Representative of the Prime Minister of Cambodia, H.E. Hun Manet, attended the event at a Phnom Penh school and spoke with passion in an unscripted address about the need for action to improve road safety:
“The Government of Cambodia is strongly dedicated to reducing the number of deaths and injuries occurring in our country due to motorcycle crashes. Helmets are a simple and effective solution, and protecting our youth from the dangers of the road is essential to ensuring our country’s bright future.”