GOVERNMENT DISTRIBUTES 100,000 FREE HELMETS

KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 (Bernama) -- The government has so far distributed
more than 100,000 free crash helmets to motorcyclists under its National Helmet
Initiative programme, Road Safety Department Director-General Suret Singh said
Thursday.

He said that the programme, launched two years ago, had been successful in
that it had helped increase the helme t wearing compliance both in the urban and
rural areas in the country.

There was now 95 per cent compliance in the urban areas and about 30 to 50
per cent in the rural areas, he told Bernama.

He said the department was working very hard to improve the compliance rate
in the rural areas through various campaigns and programmes and had roped in
community leaders to help impress upon the young to wear crash helmets for their
own safety.

Suret Singh said the helmets were bought with tax-exempted donations from
corporations to the National Road safety council.

He said that the compliance rate in rural areas was low because the
motorcyclists claimed that they could not afford to buy helmets but now with the
free helmets, they had no such excuse.
-- BERNAMA