HCM CITY (VNS) — More than 200 student drawings about road safety line the walls of Nguyen Trong Tuyen Primary School in Binh Thanh District. The drawings are part of a nationwide effort to raise awareness about the need to wear a helmet while riding a motorbike.

Nguyen Duc Quan, a teacher at the school, said the drawings had been beneficial.

"All of my school's students now wear helmets," she said.

Many schools in HCM City also use art to teach students about road safety.

Le Nguyen Ngoc Linh, a fifth grader at Quoi Xuan Primary School in District 12, said she and other students won first prize in a drawing contest on road safety regulations.

They submitted their drawing to a contest orgainsed by Helmets for Kids, a programme run by the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation and sponsored by the UPS Foundation.

Nearly 60 per cent of children in Viet Nam face a high risk of injury from traffic accidents because they do not wear a helmet, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Last year, at least 50,000 people experienced brain injuries caused by traffic accidents, according to a report from the National Safety Committee. Of those, 13.4 per cent were children. Half of that number were not wearing helmets.

After the report was issued, the government released Decree No 171 last year. It requires children aged 6 and below to wear a helmet.

Many schools though-out the country have carried out road-safety regulation programmes, and the National Traffic Safety Committee also has periodic enforcement campaigns on the need to wear a helmet.

The results of the latest campaign showed that the number of children wearing helmets rose to 68 per cent in Ha Noi, Da Nang and HCM City in April against 38 per cent last March, according to surveys from the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation. — VNS