It is just sad to see the people who should be wearing helmets the most are the ones that are eschewing them in droves.
It is perhaps rather unfortunate, but it is a rather disturbingly common sight to see high schoolers in Malaysia tearing about their motorcycles without a helmet. To be found on the roads typically near school districts, it still baffles the reasonable mind as to why these youngsters, many of whom are still in their school uniforms, are riding around without a care in the world, and without one of these protective devices around their heads.
In fact, while it is perhaps just because school has recently begun again after a long pause, but it seems as if that there are more of these students eschewing their helmets while out riding in recent times. Moreover, while the police have recently announced crackdowns on loud exhausts, hellaflush mods and other minor modification misdemeanours, there has not been word thus far from authorities to address this potentially life threatening issue that has been steadily gaining momentum.
Having said that, while the authorities should shoulder some of the responsibility on this increasingly common trend, much more of the blame for the students not wearing their helmets should be placed on the students themselves. That is because shouldn’t the importance of wearing one of these crash protection devices be one of first things these young motorcyclists have learnt while obtaining their license?
Granted, teenagers being who the optimistic group that they are, there is perhaps not an insignificant chance that most of them really (mistakenly) believe themselves to be expert bike riders that will never ever crash. Or even if they crash, they carry the misguided impression that they would be totally fine at the other end of it. So why bother with a helmet in a first place?
Being a young teen not too long ago myself, I could somewhat relate to the fact that wearing a helmet could be perceived to be not the ‘cool’ thing to do. Besides, it is perhaps also worth remembering that motorcycle helmets do not come cheap, especially when shopping for one on a meagre student budget.
Nevertheless, despite what teenagers tend to think, accidents do happen and when it does occur, these helmet-less motorcyclists rarely fare as well as they’d like. It therefore begs the question then as what can be done, as a society, to make these teenagers to lid up while out on the road?
