Traffic safety culture should start with primary school children, Belgian experts told a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday.

As part of the course, a traffic island has been built outside the school for the kids to use when they cross the road.

The children like the lessons as they study and play at the same time, thereby forming a traffic safety culture and a habit of traveling carefully, the experts said at the conference, which was titled “Traffic Safety for a Beautiful Life”.

Officials from the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation said their organization had done the same thing at many schools.

In its online advice, the foundation uses the cartoon characters Tom and Jerry to teach children about safety in the streets, they said.

Road accidents in Vietnam have killed some 12,500 people and injured 10,000 in each of the past few years, according to figures from the Vietnam National Traffic Safety Committee presented at the conference.

They cost Vietnam around US$800 million every year, committee office manager Than Van Thanh said, quoting from statistics compiled by international organizations.

Thanh said 95 percent of the accidents could be put down to careless motorists and pedestrians, but he also blamed the slow pace of road improvement in a country where the number of motorbikes is climbing by 16 percent and other motor vehicles by 12 percent annually.

“Traffic Safety for a Beautiful Life” was also attended by officials from Vietnam’s Transport Ministry, the World Health Organization and the International Traffic Safety Organization.

Since Handicap International set up shop in Vietnam in 1992, the non-profit, secular and apolitical organization has helped many Vietnamese people who were disabled in road crashes.

Reported by Le Nga