Over the past year, as part of the “Head Safe. Helmet On.” project, AIP Foundation has been implementing a public awareness campaign aimed to inform people about the importance of helmet use and the new passenger helmet law.

After a year of delivering the public awareness campaign, findings from the project’s mid-term evaluation survey, which had more than 400 respondents in 18 target communes, show positive results. Through school based programs, helmet use has increased at 18 target schools compared to control groups and road safety knowledge has increased since initiating the project.  Through the enabling environment campaign component of the project, we have helped enhance the commitment of the passenger helmet law and assisted with enforcement action plans.

Behavior change communications also appear to have contributed to increased road safety awareness.  The evaluation revealed that 78% of passengers are more likely to wear a helmet and believe that wearing helmets is as necessary for passengers as for drivers.  The main message of the project was “Protect your passengers’ lives. Make sure they wear helmets.” The evaluation found that 88% of respondents recognized this message. When prompted with an image from the campaign, 85% reported seeing it as a TV commercial. Posters on tuk tuks and billboards were the most commonly reported sources for receiving the campaign message.

When asked if there is a law that requires passengers to wear a helmet while they are riding, approximately 91% of people responded “Yes”.  Many people know about the law regardless of age group, gender, and geographic location. The Royal Government of Cambodia will begin the enforcement of the new Road Traffic Law in January 2016.