The Automobile Association Ceylon (AAC) under its FIA Road Safety Program 2024, teamed up with Sri Lanka Police to launch a safety campaign for children “Helmet, if you love me”.
AA Ceylon earlier conducted a campaign “Safer Ride for All” initiative in 2014 with a FIA Grant program to educate and influence motorcyclists to wear helmets. “This campaign was successful,” said President AAC, Dhammika Attygalle.
He said Sri Lanka still lacks adequate buses and trains in the public transport system, particularly in suburban areas and due to this the motorcycle population has increased tremendously. There are 4,840,000 registered motorcycles in Sri Lanka and almost 1/3 of the adult population owns a motorcycle. Most children travel with their parents on motorbikes as it is convenient.
“However, due to several economic issues some parents do not have finances to purchase helmets for their children.
“Although, many parents wear helmets to simply abide by traffic laws, they do not provide helmets for their children and our initiative is to encourage parents to persuade kids to wear helmets,” he said.
Stage 1 of this project will aim at educating parents and all motorcycle riders on the importance of providing a helmet to every child accompanied on a motorcycle.
“AA Ceylon is also providing children’s helmets as a CSR initiative.
“With assistance from National Council for Road Safety, Ministry of Transport, Department of Police, The Lady Ridgeway Hospital, National Child Protection Authority, Ministry of Education, Lions Club of Hendala and Corporates, we wish to address this issue and force every motorcycle rider accompanying children to provide ‘a safer helmet for children’,” he said.
DIG Indika Hapugoda said, “Today, due to strict enforcement of traffic laws, over 98% of adults riding motorbikes wear helmets. The need of the hour is to educate parents on the importance of providing a helmet for their children; not just to abide by the law, but for the sake of their children’s safety.” He said that 2,515 deaths were reported through road accidents in 2022. Around 806 people died due to motorcycle accidents, with 411 of them being children, while 5,133 people sustained injuries.
The World Bank reveals an average of 38,000 accidents annually in Sri Lanka, resulting in around 3,000 deaths and 8,000 serious injuries. They also indicated that over US $ 2 billion additional investments are needed to combat road safety issues.
The Traffic Police, taking into consideration hardships faced by parents, would initially allow a grace period for parents to provide helmets for their children and no action has been taken against parents who risk their children’s lives on motorbikes, mainly due to sympathetic factors.
He said that later the police will impose fines on motor traffic regulatory violations. The gazette notification was issued by the Transport and Highways Minister on July 7, 2022.
