On the morning of May 31, an 80 year-old woman from My Tho City was still unconscious at the Brain Injury Ward of HCMC’s Cho Ray Hospital after a traffic accident.

“My husband took her on his motorbike,” the woman’s daughter told Tuoi Tre. Both wore helmets. After the accident, my husband’s helmet was still okay but the one my mother-in-law was wearing was broken. . . We had bought it from a roadside vendor for only 25,000 dong” ($1.25).

A man named Dung on a nearby bed had been lying unconscious for eight days in the Cho Ray ICU.

Dung was thrown to the ground after another motorbike hit his own. “My husband was wearing a helmet at that time but it was smashed completely,” Dung’s wife said.

Poor quality helmets = brain injuries

At the Hung Nga helmet shop on Van Tuong Road, District 5, HCM City, a Tuoi Tre reporter bought a helmet with an odd brand name, Zet, for 90,000 dong ($4.75). The label said it was manufactured by the Dong Duong Company in Tan Binh district. He bought another helmet branded AC-E, made by another Binh Tan district company, Dinh Lap, for 60,000 dong (not quite $3).

Neither company is on the current list of helmet producers certified by the Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality (STAMEQ).

Dr. Duong Minh Man, Chief of the Cho Ray Hospital’s Brain Injury Ward, comments sadly that most people who are brought to him with head trauma were wearing grossly inadequate helmets.  “When they are in a road accident, these helmets cannot protect their heads,” Man said.

The doctor added that for several months after December, 2007, when all motorbike riders were required  to wear helmets, the number of brain injury victims fellremarkably. However, it has been rising again.

Low price and a cool image sway buyers

Many people choose helmets for their fashionable appearance or low price, or both, but not for quality.

Experts explain that a helmet consists of three elements: a plastic cover, an energy-absorbing inner liner and a chin strap. The most important part is the liner, made of expanded polystyrene. There must be at least 140 rams of polystyrene in the liner of a ‘standard helmet.’

Le Dinh Tung at the Research Centre for Consumer Consulting says that just a few brands of helmets on the local market meet this standard.

If it’s cheap, it’s crap

Big helmet stores in HCMC sell both standard helmets, priced from 100,000 to 300,000 dong ($5.20 to $16) and sub-standard ones at from 17,000 to 60,000 dong (less than a dollar to to $3.20).

The uncertified, cheap helmets flood the market because, according to many helmet sellers, most buyers are intent on avoiding arrest by the traffic police, not on avoiding brain injury.

According to helmet sellers, a cheap helmets can be manufactured for 20,000 dong or less.  Le Dinh Tung says that it costs at least 45,000 dong to produce a helmet of acceptable quality.

The owner of a big helmet store in District 12 confessed that “with these dirty prices, don’t think these helmets are much good”.

The owner of four helmet stores in HCM City, says “my stores sell around 100 helmets daily. Over 70 percent of the customers choose cheap helmets and they don’t pay attention to the quality.”

Dodgy helmet makers

Where do the low-quality helmets come from? Tuoi Tre reporters randomly selected several helmet brands on the list of helmets certified by STAMEQ, and launched an investigation.

Reporters first visited Minh Nghi Garments and Advertising Co., Ltd., the producer of Adess helmets, which are very popular, and usually sell for 55,000 dong.  This firm’s registered office is located on Nguyen Van Qua road, District 12, HCM City. However, that address is a small house owned by a local man. Local police confirmed that there is no Minh Nghi Company at that address.

It was the same for the Duc Tru Co., Ltd, the producer of DL02 helmet.  Its registered address is an old warehouse. Local police said that this company has not been at this address several years.

That’s the situation of certified helmet brands.  What about uncertified products?

The uncertified helmets sold by sidewalk vendors rarely bear the address of a maker.  Buyers only see “Made-in-Vietnam” on these products. Where do they helmets come from?

Tuoi Tre found a man who produced substandard helmets several years ago. The man said that making them is easy. “You don’t need to have a workshop or any machines to produce helmets, just some capital.  You only need to buy the parts at Thiec market, assemble them, and sell the cheap helmets to sidewalk vendors,” he said.

Following the man’s advice, the reporter visited a store on Hoa Hoa road in HCM City’s District 11, that sells everything to make helmets. The store sells plastic covers for 8000 dong, foam liners for 6000 dong, and a chin strap and screws for 3000 dong, a total of 17,000 dong per helmet.

Test results

Tuoi Tre and the Research Centre for Consumer Consulting then randomly bought 31 helmets from eight stores and one supermarket in Districts 3, 5, 11, Binh Thanh and Go Vap for testing at Centre for Quality Measurement No.3 in HCM City. Notably, 18 of the 31 helmets have been certified to meet quality standards by STAMEQ.

The tests show that 71 percent of the samples (22/31 helmets) failed to meet quality standards.  The plastic covers of two of the samples crumbled during testing.

Vo Viet Ha, chief inspector of the HCM City Department of Science and Technology, said that three-quarters of a small sample of helmets his office tested last year didn’t meet quality standards.

Five of the 31 helmets in Tuoi Tre’s sample used faked quality stamps.

Five organizations in Vietnam are authorized to certify helmet quality: the Hanoi-based Centre for Quality Certification (Quacert Hanoi), the Office for Quality Certification (BQC Hanoi), the three branches of the Centre for Quality Testing: Quatest 1 in Hanoi, Quatest 2 in Da Nang and Quatest 3 in HCM City.

Legally, only helmets certified by these institutions meet standards and can be sold.

However, only two of the four helmets certified by Quacert Hanoi satisfied quality standards. None of the four helmets certified by BQC Hanoi were up to snuff. And, ironically, neither were six of ten helmets certified by Quatest 3.

Explaining this result, Deputy Director Hoang Lam of Quatest 3 said “we only certify the production process and the sample products submitted to us.  We don’t know whether producers continue to obey the certified production procedures and standards or not. They  have to bear responsibility themselves.”

Notably, a majority of the HCM City helmet makers avoided using the quality certification service at HCM City-based Quatest 3 but instead sought the services of Quacert and BQC in Hanoi. Two companies in Can Tho and Dak Lak also chose BQC Hanoi.

Some helmet producers said that Quatest 3’s standards are very strict so they preferred Quacert and BQC in Hanoi.

Lam of Quatest said that the rules on helmet quality certification are set by STAMEQ and they are consistent in the whole system. “Quatest 3 exactly pursues the standards. I can’t speak for other organizations.”

The first thing many buyers look for when they buy a helmet is the quality stamp.  However, it is very easy to buy faked stamps for 500 dong per unit.

Caveat Emptor!

Dr. Phan Minh Tan, Director of the HCM City Department of Science and Technology, says that it is very difficult to control helmet quality.   “The problem is, many people only buy cheap helmets to avoid a fine, not to protect their head.  When there is demand for cheap helmets, someone will supply it.

“Low-quality helmets are sold everywhere so it is difficult to control them,” sighed Tan. “HCM City is very big, but our department has only five inspectors and we have to control the quality of many goods. Cooperation among agencies, and especially with the market control force, is needed.”

Tan says state agencies can only control licenced helmet producers. “Even if we had many more inspectors, we couldn’t control illegal helmet producers.  We can only hope to raise the responsibility of grassroots management agencies and the awareness of helmet users.”

Soure: Vietnamnet

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