The new 'look' for Vietnam: helmets

HANOI, Vietnam — For centuries, Vietnamese have worn the non la, the distinctive conical straw hat that shields the face from tropical sun and monsoon rains.

But now the non la is being supplanted by another type of headgear: the motorcycle helmet.

In a country gone crazy over motorbikes and motor scooters, Vietnamese have shown remarkable compliance with a new law requiring all drivers and passengers to don helmets.

"I think when you wear a helmet it is for your safety," says Lam Thanh Manh, a 23-year-old deliveryman. "It is a little hot, though."

While the car is the vehicle of choice in many developing nations, motorbikes have caught on in Vietnam for reasons both economic and practical. With gas here at $3.60 a gallon — more than the average person makes in a day — it's a lot cheaper to operate a motorbike than a car. Motorbikes are also better able to negotiate narrow streets and alleys in crowded cities like the capital, Hanoi, population 3.5-millon.

And it often seems that all 3.5-million are on the move — chic young women in spike heels, mothers with children, delivery people toting everything from computers to mattresses to refrigerators on the backs of Hondas and Suzukis. As red lights turn green, scores flood into traffic like the rush of a dam break.

Alarming fatalities

In a country of 86-million people, there are 1.2-million cars and 22-million motorbikes. Their constant beep-beeping drowns out every other urban noise.

The popularity of motorbikes and their often reckless use has led to an alarming number of fatalities: 30 people a day last year, making traffic accidents the leading cause of unnatural death. Public outrage mounted when motorbikers ran down two esteemed professors on a single weekend in Hanoi, killing one and leaving another in a coma.

In 1997, when Douglas "Pete" Peterson became the first U.S. ambassador to Vietnam two years after relations were normalized, he made safety a primary concern.

"I personally lobbied the Vietnamese leadership for over three years to pass a law on helmets," Peterson says.

But last year the government tried again, using an aggressive public awareness campaign and the threat of $10 fines — more than the cost of the cheapest helmet (prices range from $5 to $30). In September, helmets became mandatory on national highways, and since Dec. 15, they have been required everywhere.

The result: a 15 percent reduction in traffic fatalities and a 33 percent drop in injuries.

Safety in style

With the new law has come a burgeoning business in helmets. Hanoi has a plethora of shops selling them in every conceivable color and design, from Mickey Mouse to Burberry plaid. Especially popular are snap-on fabric brims that can transform a helmet into a faux baseball cap or a flouncy, flowery creation that wouldn't look out of place in Gone With the Wind.

As she recently shopped on Paper Street — so-called because that's where residents get their stationery and other paper goods — Nguyen Thi Hoa sported a helmet camouflaged as an orange-and-white polka-dotted bonnet.

"I wear this when it's sunny," says the 20-year-old student, who like many Vietnamese women prizes pale, unfreckled skin. But she conceded, "I probably wouldn't wear a helmet if there wasn't a law."

Peterson knows the ambivalence toward helmets. As a Florida member of Congress from 1991 to 1997, he helped add a provision to the federal transportation bill that said states without helmet laws would receive less federal money than states that had them. Florida was among the many states that adopted a helmet law, only to repeal it in 2000.

In Vietnam, Peterson warns, the true test of compliance may come as summer temperatures soar to 95 and the humidity hits levels that make Florida feel arid.

The Vietnamese "have faithfully worn helmets during the winter as it kept them warm," Peterson says. "The smothering summer heat will be something else quite different."

Susan Taylor Martin can be contacted at susan@sptimes.com.