In Thailand drivers and passengers are legally required to wear helmets but the law is violated with near total impunity and a recent government campaign to promote children's use of helmets failed in spectacular fashion. The end result: Child deaths and injury continues to mount.
...a new program aims to make helmets part of the school uniform...and if laws are to be effective, they have to be enforced. The police should start getting tough on parents who allow their children to ride unprotected, imposing steep fines for repeat offenders...
Today, worldwide more than one million people die each year as a result of road traffic injuries — more than 90% of them in developing countries....
It doesn't have to be like this. Lives can be saved through the enforcement of laws that put the interests of vulnerable road users — pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycle passengers — ahead of car owners.
...Transport policy success should be measured by the safety of road users and the quality of life.
Enforcing speed limits, clamping down on drunk driving, and designing roads with a view to safety rather than speed can save lives. At a minimum, governments should work to ensure that every child is able to make a safe journey to school ..
This year, governments from around the world will agree on a new set of development goals for the post-2015 period. The current proposal includes a goal for halving deaths from road traffic injury by 2030 — an outcome that would save many millions of lives...
Thailand should support the new goal. As a country, it cannot afford to see the lives and hopes of so many families shattered by avoidable deaths...
Kevin Watkins is executive director of the Overseas Development Institute and former director of the UN Human Development Report.