MWANZA, TANZANIA – Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) has introduced the first national helmet standard aiming at ensuring, manufacturers and importers supply quality helmets for motorcycles riders’ safety.
The applicable new standard is TZS1478:2013 protective helmets for motorcycle riders-specification, TBS said.
Addressing stakeholders at the seminar to introduce the new standard, TBS’s Acting Director General, Mr. Joseph Masikitiko vowed that all means will be applied to ensure no substandard helmets are manufactured or imported in the country.
“We have lost a lot of manpower which could have helped the country to boost its economy, Masikitiko said, adding that it is true that we initiated this motorcycle business to help majority youth earn employment, but we couldn’t see the other side of the coin that many of them have faced.”
Motorcycle business commonly known as ‘Boda Boda’ is mostly carried out by youth as part of their employment, but majority of them have lost lives and others lying in the hospitals after experiencing accidents.
Masikitiko said that the body wants all motorcycle operators and their clients to wear standard helmets in order to ensure their safety during accidents.
“This standard specifies the requirements regarding materials, construction, workmanship, finish, mass and performance for protective helmets for everyday use by motorcycle riders,” he noted.
For his part, Mr. Lazaro Msasalaga, the Acting Head of Certification of the Bureau called on the stakeholders to note that it was the manufacturers as first party in ensuring that what they manufacture meets the standards for their products to be marketed.
Mr. Msasalaga said it is the responsibility of the second party, the consumer, to press the manufacturer to product quality and standard product like helmets.
“But without the second party, the consumers to pin manufacturers to produce quality and standard helmets or any products, then the standard will not have any meaning. For us this standard can work efficiently if the first and second parties take their responsibilities,” he said. Mr. Msasalaga said TBS was only the third party to ensure quality of the product.
The acting head of certification highlighted some of the advantages of having quality and standard helmets that when manufacturers or importers produces or imports quality helmets, that will increase buyers confidence in a product and thereby maximize profit to the manufacturer or importer.
