18 June
Road traffic injuries are a major public health problem and a leading cause of death and injury around the world. Each year nearly 1.2 million people die and millions more are injured or disabled as a result of road crashes, mostly in low-income and middle-income countries.
Our country is facing the problem of a rapidly rising number of people injured or killed while riding motorcycles. A large proportion of the deaths and severe injuries result from injuries to the head.
As motorization increases, road traffic crashes are becoming a fast-growing problem in our country. If present trends continue unchecked, road traffic injuries will increase dramatically in most parts of the country over the next two decades, with the greatest impact falling on the most vulnerable citizens.
As well as creating enormous social costs for individuals, families and communities, road traffic injuries place a heavy burden on health services and economies.
In some areas of Myanmar, motorcycles, which account for half the road accidents in Myanmar, are also plying on the roads, but some road users are not wearing helmets.
Reckless driving, under the influence of alcohol, over-speeding, defective vehicles, and inclement weather are being blamed for most traffic accidents. Deaths and casualties from traffic accidents have continued to increase around the world.
In Myanmar, nationwide, motorcycle accidents accounted for 49 per cent of the total mishaps in 2018, and claimed 2,376 lives and left 12,985 injured.
Motorcycle accidents encompass 49 per cent of all traffic accidents in 2018 with 2,376 deaths and 12,985 casualties. The numbers also increased noticeably in 2019.
Every road user knows that helmets are effective in reducing the likelihood of head injuries, as well as their severity. Increasing helmet use in a country is thus an important way of improving road safety. But, the helmets we use must be quality ones or safety helmets.
It means all motorcycle helmets that we use should comply with the current UNECE standards by the UN Regulation No. 22 which covers motorcycle helmets.
UN Regulation No. 22 provides uniform conditions for the approval of protective helmets for drivers and passengers of motorcycles.
Taking serious consideration in addressing this issue, we must adopt the UN Regulation No. 22.
We must not lose sight of the goal to reduce the death toll in traffic accidents by 50 per cent in 2020 from the toll recorded in the base year of 2013.
