She has played a devil-may-care superhero on two wheels in the 2004 Hong Kong production “Silver Hawk” and did the region proud as James Bond’s riding partner in “Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997), but Malaysian superstar actress Michelle Yeoh is now playing her most important motorbike-related role yet — as the global ambassador for the Make Roads Safe campaign.

Speaking at a packed press conference in Hanoi, organised by the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation (AIPF), the Vietnam Helmet Wearing Coalition and the Make Roads Safe campaign, Michelle Yeoh urged the government, parents and schools to ensure that children wear crash helmets when riding as passengers on motorcycles.

AIPF President Greig Craft described how parents throughout the country were losing children because of a lack of helmets. “Every week, we hear how children without helmets are dying in traffic accidents while their parents, who do wear helmets, survive. This is a horrifying, unacceptable reality. It must be changed.”

HA NOI — Well-known actress Michelle Yeoh yesterday called for urgent action to get children to wear helmets on motorbikes, on a fact-finding trip to Ha Noi as global ambassador for the Make Roads Safe Campaign.

The actress said that while she rode a motorbike without a helmet in the movies, she did not encourage people to do the same. Yeoh, who can be seen walking on top of a moving train in her film, wouldn’t even walk across a busy street in the city after a terrifying first experience.

Yeoh praised the country for successfully introducing helmet legislation for adults but expressed shock at seeing so few children protected.

“It is very troubling to see so many children in Ha Noi riding on motorcycles without helmets. Twelve children die unnecessarily each week because they are not wearing a helmet. Parents must act right now to put Government-certified helmets on their children,” she said.

Yeoh expressed sympathy over the death of eight-year-old girl Le Xuan Han, who died six weeks ago in a motorcybike collision. Her parents survived wearing helmets, and while Han and her sister usually wore helmets, they didn’t that day. The actress joined with the Viet Nam Helmet Wearing Coalition and the National Traffic Safety Committee to stress the importance of helmets on child motorbike passengers.

Yeoh stressed that parents must protect their children the same way they protect themselves.

[Read More]

Every 3 minutes, a child dies on the world’s roads, according to the Make Roads Safe campaign. That is one scary thought. It is encouraging to see so many big names and organisations coming together to make our roads safer for everyone. So lend your support to these organisations like Make Roads Safe and the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation. Our future — literally — depends on their good work.

Bookmark This Article

Hide Sites