Most of those killed on the road this year were motorcyclists. According to figures from the Traffic Police, 168 motorcyclists died in a crash between January and November.
The Road Safety Council (COSEVI) wants to change the figures. The institution seeks to improve the quality of helmets and make motorcyclists stop choosing them based on color and do more thinking about their safety.
The regulation was developed by the Technical Standards Institute of Costa Rica (INTECO) and establishes safety requirements that can make the difference between life and death. Helmets will be declared safe if they have an outer shell, a guard in the jaw, a restraint system and if in case of a crash, it absorbs the impact.
The regulations require helmets importers in the country to only distribute devices that meet the established parameters.
The authorities are working on the rules governing the safety standard. According to COSEVI, the text could be ready by mid-2017 and later incorporated into the Traffic Law.