New laws for moto drivers
Walking to the hospital on my first morning in Battambang I had the sensation that something was amiss, but it took me far too long to figure out the disconnection because it was so unexpected: every motor scooter now sported two rear view mirrors and over 85% of the moto drivers were wearing helmets. 1 ½ years ago I had been so exercised by the number of moto injuries in the hospital and the lack of rear view mirrors, I made a survey while walking to work, counting the number of cycles with one or two mirrors--12%. I even inquired from the Emergency staff why the factory installed attachments for mirrors were unused. The consensus was that "a mirror detracted from the handsomeness of the bike".
Of course. Why would anyone, American or Khmer ever put safety before vanity? The moto is a direct extension of one's self and a couple of clunky mirrors protruding from the handlebars not only get in the way, but they also alter the sleek lines of racing beauty.
That so few people wore helmets was understandable in light of the lack of all other safety precautions. I'm sure most people thought the sign at Emergency's entrance admonishing helmet use had more to do with art than a public service reminder.
What brought this monumental change? Recent helmet and mirror laws and a police force quite ready to slap on the fines for noncompliance. Pretty amazing, really to have such compliance. The mirrors are easy. You buy a couple of mirrors, screw them in and you only have to look at them once in a while. Are they used? Having mirrors installed and using them are not of the same order. One of the nurses told me he didn't trust the mirrors. He wasn't able to interpret the mirrored images with what he sensed and saw in "unmirrored reality". Even seeing a Cambodian moto driver turn and do a head check for traffic is a reportable event. When you enter a driving culture with little background experience and you drive using the same fluid rules that you use in walking, mirrors are probably something that are rather more useless than simply detracts from the handsomeness of the machine.
Someone made a lot of money selling mirrors. I wonder if certain vendors, through insider information, didn't corner the market and make a killing. Now all motos come equipped.
Helmet laws
The helmet law looks good on first appraisal. My first reaction was hurray! And to think that Cambodia is actually enforcing this seems quite commendable. When I look at the situation more closely I wonder how much good such a law actually does. Most of the helmets are rather inadequate, looking more like something one would wear on a bicycle, or as a jocky on a horse. Straps are left unhooked, or secured at such an angle to that the wearer is more likely to be pithed in the event of a crash than be saved from head injury. I even saw a driver with the chin bar of the helmet around his forehead
Can a law generate the sort of behavior change it is meant to? Only superficially at this time in Cambodia when the law only pertains to the driver. Seeing a family of 5 perched on a moto with only the father wearing a helmet I realize that people are following the letter of the law because the consequences are not pleasant. The idea that a helmet can save a life and everyone on the moto should wear one to be safe hasn't quite caught on. Maybe this is just a start, and it is certainly better than nothing, but I wonder if people will gradually stop wearing them and the police will discontinue rounding up the non-helmeted drivers, to take to pocketing the fine and convert it to a bribe, thus corrupting the entire idea.
Getting arouond the law( and into the hospital)
When I asked about the connection between the new helmet laws and the 2 young men in the ICU with frontal brain injury and significant bits of bone missing from their depressed skull fractures from moto crashes I was told they crashed at night. I didn't get the connection until One of the Khmer doctors explained that at night people don't wear helmets. The perception and probably the reality is that there are fewer police out to enforce the laws and in the dark no one can see that you aren't wearing a helmet.
There are always reasons why things happen as they do, even if the reasons aren't always readily evident.
More on helmets later.
