All over the world, helmets are acknowledged as the one handiest piece of gear in relation to holding riders alive within the occasion of a motorbike accident. There’s a cause why helmets are the naked minimal requirement for many nations world wide. So it goes with out saying that having a helmet that’s been licensed to the most recent security requirements is frequent sense, proper?

Unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to be the case, as plenty of uncertified helmets proceed to flow into available in the market, particularly in growing nations in Asia. In Malaysia, for instance, a major variety of youngster bike helmets have been discovered substandard when it comes to security.

Helmet security requirements exist for a cause, and that cause is easy: to attenuate head accidents within the occasion of an accident. While the ECE 22.06—a regular we’ve talked about in nice element prior to now—is usually thought of the common normal, a number of nations have their very own requirements in place. Malaysia is one in all these nations, because it just lately enacted the MS 1-2:2023, a newly developed helmet security normal patterned after the worldwide ECE normal.

Despite the implementation of recent security requirements within the nation, a obtrusive variety of helmets—particularly kids’s helmets—have been discovered to be substandard. The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) and Road Safety Marshal Club of Malaysia (RSMC) just lately bought 10 kids’s bike helmets, of which 5 failed to fulfill requirements. The assessments have been carried out by the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (Sirim).

Even extra alarmingly, a report by Malaysian information publication The Star reveals that some retailers have been reportedly unaware of the standard of the helmets they have been promoting to customers. The report states that some sellers even claimed that their helmets met security requirements, all whereas having no labels or certifications to indicate.

The doom and gloom continues once we check out bicycle helmets—one thing far more commonplace than children’ bike helmets. Thousands of youngsters journey their bikes round Malaysia each single day, and it’s alarming that greater than half of youngsters’ bike helmets examined failed to fulfill present security requirements. In whole, 11 helmets have been purchased and examined from stores, with six of them failing the check. Meanwhile, out of the ten helmets bought on-line, seven of them didn’t meet security requirements.

Following these findings, the MMA and RSMC urged the authorities to take motion to make sure that all bike and bicycle helmets bought on-line and in shops meet both Malaysian or worldwide security requirements—a activity that’s clearly a lot simpler stated than accomplished.

At the top of the day, you and your children’ security on two wheels is in your arms. As the buyer, it’s in the end our accountability to do our analysis when shopping for stuff—be it from the meals we placed on our tables to the helmets we put on on our heads. There are plenty of reliable and respected model names that provide protected and reasonably priced helmets for each biking and motorcycling, and all it takes is a little bit of analysis with a view to make an informed choice.

Sure, it may be all too tempting to fall for irresistible offers on low-cost helmets. But is you and your loved ones’s security actually well worth the threat?