VietNamNet Bridge – Hearing that the Da nang, authorities allowed local residents to exchange their old helmets to new ones, thousands of people flocked to the local fair center.

Earlier, the Traffic Safety Board of the central city of Da nang announced on television that local residents could exchange their old helmets to new ones, paying only VND50,000 ($2.5) of additional charge, from 9am of April 10.

However, thousands of people flocked to the Da nang Exhibition and Fair Center from 6am. Each of them took several old helmets with them, causing a chaos.

Just a half an hour after the helmet-exchange program started, over 600 new helmets were delivered. People began surrounding helmet-carrying trucks. Those who had waited for the exchange from the early morning--but could not change their helmets, began to boo. Some surrounded staff of the Traffic Safety Board.



Mr. Nguyen Huu Cuong, chief of the Danang Trafic Safety Board’s office, says that the board prepared 5,000 new helmets but due to the chaos, the board could not deliver the entire number of helmets.

Da nang is the first and only city in Vietnam that has such a program, which aims to abandon the use of fake helmets in the city.

The city has approved the construction of a helmet plant to produce qualified helmets to sell to local residents at cheap prices (VND50,000 - $2.5) in a bid to fight fake helmets.

Mai Lan