Vietnam may ban skinny bikers from its roads in a bizarre bid to make sure those behind the handlebars are healthy.
The country's Ministry of Health thinks people whose chests measure less than 28 inches should be stopped from riding motorbikes - as would those who are too short or too thin. The proposal is part of an exhaustive list of new criteria the ministry has come up with to ensure that Vietnam's drivers are in good health.
But the plans have been laughed at be Vietnamese - a nation of traditionally slight people. It is not clear how ministry established its size guidelines or why it believes that small people make bad drivers - and officials will not comment. The average Vietnamese man is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs under nine stone and women are an average of 5 feet, 1 inch and seven stone.
The draft, which must be approved by the central government to become law, would also prohibit people from driving motorbikes if they suffer from array of health conditions like enlarged livers or sinusitis. The rules would cover the vast majority of Vietnam's 20 million motorbikes, but would not apply to drivers of cars or trucks.
Motorbikes account for more than 90 percent of the vehicles on Vietnam's chaotic roads, which are among the world's most dangerous. Nearly 13,000 road deaths were recorded last year, and Vietnam has one of the world's highest rates of deaths per 100,000 peopel, according to the World Health Organization.
The majority of accidents involve motorbikes, which many workers in the nation of 85 million need to do their jobs.
Nguyen Van Tai, a motorbike taxi driver, measured his chest as soon as he heard the proposals - and was relieved to beat the chest limit by 3 inches. Tai, 46, said: "A lot of people in my home village are small. "Many in my generation were poor and suffered from malnutrition. And now the Ministry of Health wants to stop us from driving to work."
Vietnamese bloggers joked that traffic police with tape measures will be keen to pull over female riders to measure their chests.
"Vietnam has one of the world's highest rates of deaths per 100,000 people"
Surely out of every 100,000 people, everyone dies?
Five foot four average? I would be a giant amongst men!
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