[SAFETY]
HELMET USE IN ITALY
Encouraging signs
A nationwide study in Italy shows encouraging signs of a rising trend in helmet use but it also reveals that there is still a wide gap between the North and the South.
The differences are marked: generalized usage in the North and the Center with values ranging between 97% and 100%, compared to some southern provinces where the proportion of the motorcyclists who wear a helmet comes down (with the exceptions of Matera with 97,3 % and Cagliari with 95 %) even touching, in certain areas of small cities, values next to 0%.
These are some of the findings of the 2007 edition the “Ulisse system” study, a nationwide monitoring on the use of the safety devices. The Ulisse system is a project promoted by the Italian Ministry of Transport and coordinated by the National Institute of Health that since 2000 is engaged in finding out how much the Italian users of two and four wheeled vehicles use passive safety devices like the helmet and the seat belt.
However the trend for helmet usage is overall encouraging. A growing number of Italian PTW riders are wearing a helmet indicating that awareness campaigns and enforcement strategies are having a positive effect. Only two provinces have shown sign of decline: in the 2000-2007 period the use of helmets in Florence has gone down from 99,7% to 96,3% and in Naples it dropped to 56,6% from 58,2%.
It is also interesting to highlight that among the population wearing the helmet, those wo did not properly lock the helmet’s chinstrap were 4,9%, with peaks of 12,8% depending on the monitored area.
On the side of car users, the number of Italian motorists who use the seat belts is dropping: the national average is down from 83,5% of mid 2003 to 64,6% of 2007, when there was a decrease of 7% compared to 2006.
To form the national average value continuation from Liguria leading with 91,3 % followed by Veneto’s 89.1 %) and indisciplinate regions concur vituous regions (Molise, with 35,8% followed by Sicily with 37,4 % and Calabria with the 39.1%).
Beyond belts and helmets the survey has been extended to the use of cellular phones while driving, to the habit to transport the children on affixed safety seats or to light the day lights on rural roads.
The Ulisse program is based on systematic and repeated surveys, made in constant conditions of hour and day and in the same locations. Approximately ¾ of the surveys were done in urban areas. In 2007 the monitored road users were over half a million and nearly 6 million since the launch of the project in 2003. The total PTW users monitored by the Ulisse project were 666.785 since 2000, 43.584 only in 2007.
The portrait coming out of this survey, is that of a country that is ready to acquire virtuous behaviours under particular conditions. The peak of helmet and seat belts usage was experienced in mid 2003, when Italy introduced penalty points for driving licences. However Italians are equally prone to lose the good habits, car drivers more that PTW riders.
Download the study (in Italian) :
Sistema Ulisse - Monitoraggio nazionale sull'uso dei dispositivi di sicurezza (Anno 2007)
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