About a year ago, Rose Moxham, an Australian writer living in Hanoi, stopped at a red light on her motorbike. Some of her fellow travelers stopped as well. But not all.

To understand what happened next, it helps to know a couple of things: Ninety percent of the vehicles on Vietnam's roads are motorbikes and until Dec. 15, 2007, fewer than 10 percent of riders wore helmets. The second is that, in this rapidly developing country, traffic controls are - like the Pirate's Code in Pirates of the Caribbean - more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules.

"It happened very quickly," Moxham recalls. "A young woman on her motorbike was knocked from behind. She dropped her bike, fell off, hit her head on the road and died. Just like that." She shakes her head. "Dead."

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/health_science/daily/20080628_Vietnam_shows_effect_of_motorcycle_helmets.html

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer (www.philly.com)