As deaths of motorcyclists rise, UN health agency steps up efforts to promote helmet use

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a new manual aimed at increasing the use of helmets by motorcyclists, as the users of motorized two-wheelers comprise an increasing proportion of road deaths and injuries around the world, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries.

Helmets: a road safety manual for decision-makers and practitioners provides technical advice to governments on how to assess current helmet use and design programmes to increase it.

About 1.2 million people die in road crashes – mostly preventable – every year around the world, while millions more are injured or disabled, WHO said in a statement issued in Geneva. Users of two-wheelers, particularly motorcyclists, make up more than 50 per cent of that number in many low-income and middle-income countries.

It also notes that helmet use has been shown to reduce deaths among motorcyclists by almost 40 per cent, decrease injuries by roughly 70 per cent, and to substantially lower the costs of health care associated with such crises. For that reason, WHO says helmet use should be a high priority for national public health systems.

“We need to stress not only the effectiveness of helmets in saving lives, but the fact that helmet programmes are good value for money,” says Anders Nordström, Acting Director-General of WHO. “Countries will recoup their investment in these programmes many times over through savings to their health-care systems, as well as savings to other sectors.”

The WHO manual addresses specific issues of concern to low- and middle-income countries, such as protecting children who ride as passengers on their parents’ motorcycles, financial disincentives to helmet use, and enforcement of helmet laws in light of limited resources.

The manual will be implemented in Southeast Asia initially, but will be extended over the next two years to cover countries in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.