A pregnant woman was riding an electric vehicle and collided with a bus. The pregnant woman was face down and her head was stuck under the bus. Because she wore a helmet, she was saved without any problems. Recently, the "Helmet Rescue" incident in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, triggered a heated debate. The reporter's visit found that few electric bike riders in many streets of Beijing wear helmets, and the main reason is that they dislike trouble and short journey.
Helmets must be worn when riding motorcycles, which has become a common sense of traffic safety. However, many cyclists do not think highly of wearing helmets when riding electric bikes. In their opinion, electric vehicles are usually just a way to commute to and from work. They ride short distances and run slowly. Wearing helmets is too troublesome. Just be careful. However, the danger is often hidden behind the luck.
Unlike cars, electric bicycles have protective measures, and their stability is poor. In case of an accident, people will directly contact the ground, and the head is often the first to land. The head is a vulnerable part of the human body, which is easy to cause brain injury after being hit. In the fatal traffic accidents involving electric bicycles, "craniocerebral injury" has always ranked first. For individuals, an accident by riding an electric vehicle may be a small probability event, but once an accident occurs, the consequences of not wearing a helmet are likely to be fatal.
For motorcycle and electric vehicle drivers, safety helmets are equivalent to the safety belts worn by car drivers, and are the last line of defense when people encounter danger. According to the report of the World Health Organization, correctly wearing motorcycle safety helmets can reduce the risk of death in traffic accidents by 40%, and the risk of serious head injuries by 70%. For electric bicycle riders, wearing safety helmets correctly can play the same protective role.
The new mandatory national standard for electric bicycles, Safety Technical Specifications for Electric Bicycles, came into force on April 15 this year. The Opinions on Strengthening the Supervision of the Implementation of National Standards for Electric Bicycles also clearly stated that helmets are encouraged to be worn when riding electric bicycles. However, from a practical point of view, riding an electric bicycle and wearing a helmet is still far from becoming a daily habit and conscious behavior. Previously, the evaluation data of the Shanghai Road Safety Project undertaken by the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the helmet use rate of electric bicycle drivers was only 12.5%, and the passenger use rate was only 2.0%.
How to promote the habit of riding electric bikes and wearing helmets, the more "hard core" way is to legislate and enforce. At present, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other cities have listed "electric bike riders must wear helmets" in local laws and regulations, and violators will be warned or fined between 20 yuan and 50 yuan. It is undoubtedly a powerful measure to force the public to attach importance to wearing helmets at the cost of illegal activities, which is worth learning from elsewhere. However, legislation is easier than enforcement. Riding electric bikes and wearing helmets to enter the law puts forward a severe test for law enforcement supervision. When the conditions for entering the law are not yet mature, encouraging the public to wear helmets when riding electric bicycles should not be an empty slogan, but should be implemented through publicity and guidance.
In this regard, we should use new media to carry out publicity and education, and use things around us to warn people around us. Local traffic police departments may wish to sort out the cases of electric vehicle accidents that have occurred in recent years. These real cases around are more shocking and persuasive than empty preaching. At the same time, actively connect with key industries such as express logistics and delivery, urge them to strengthen safety education for employees, and guide employees to actively wear helmets by formulating internal rules and regulations. In addition, explore and carry out activities such as free distribution of safety helmets, take this opportunity to improve the public's awareness of traffic safety and consciously achieve safe and civilized travel.
