BEIRUT: A campaign to highlight motorcycle safety and stress the importance of wearing helmets has been launched by the Youth Association for Social Awareness (YASA), as road tragedies continue to claim the lives of young people at an alarming rate. On Tuesday, the groups organized a news conference at The Press Club in Furn al-Shubbak to announce the initiative, which began with a moment of silence in the memory of Salam Harb, 19, and Philip Mallouh, 26, recent victims of motorcycle accidents.
“It is currently the law for motorcycle riders to wear helmets in this country, but hardly anyone follows it,” said Youssef Howaik, the president of the Press Club. “Most young people see organizations like ours and the police as working against them; they don’t realize we are trying to protect their lives.”
Howaik also added that there are 400,000 motorcycles in Lebanon, but only 35,000 of them are registered, which makes it almost impossible for the police to fine drivers and enforce road laws.
“We need to make young people understand that driving quickly, stunt riding and not following traffic laws is very dangerous, and results in many deaths each year.”
According to Ziad Akl, the president of YASA, 150 people have been killed in motorcycle-related accidents so far this year.
He said the statistic was fairly steady on a year-to-year basis, and that young people were not taking enough precautions when driving on the road. He also stated that tragically, most of the fatal accidents claimed the lives of people between the ages of 15 and 25.
A trophy was also awarded to a spokesman from the private firm JTI for its work in highlighting road safety and providing free helmets to youth associations and scouting groups.
Miro Mallouh, the mother of Philip Mallouh, gave an impassioned plea at the conference for young people to take more care when driving.
“Our loss has been huge,” she said, visibly holding back her tears. “He was wearing all of the [necessary] protective clothing and he took great precautions, but our streets aren’t suitable for motorcyclists.”
An accident on the Nahr al-Mott-Baabdat highway on 26 September proved fatal for Mallouh, a 26-year old graphic designer. Mallouh said that her son died driving too fast on “the road of death” but that he was wearing his helmet at the time of the accident, stressing that Lebanese roads are not safe enough as it is, and people should take much more care if they are to drive motorcycles.
YASA made several recommendations for improving motorcycle safety, such as stricter police enforcement of traffic laws, but also congratulated the Interior Ministry for beginning to take “serious action” to clamp down on the chaos caused by unregulated motorcycles and two-wheeled vehicles.
“Many motorcyclists often drive through red lights and the wrong way up one way streets; they need to follow the same laws as cars to stay protected,” said Joe Dakkash, the vice president of YASA.
YASA said that many accidents are caused each year due to illegal street racing and stunt driving, and they hope that by partnering with the Lebanese Association of School Safety Awareness (LASSA), they can provide more venues for regulated and legal racing and stunt driving to keep daredevils protected and off the streets.
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