A Diploma Thesis titled ‘Investigation of factors affecting helmet use among European motorcyclists‘ was presented by Christos Katrakazas in March 2013. Αn analysis took place, based on data from the SARTRE 4 Pan-European survey, which was conducted on a representative sample of European motorcycle drivers. Binary Logistic regression models were developed to investigate factors affecting helmet use on four types of roads (motorways, main roads between towns, country roads and built-up areas). These models were used on the samples from Greece, Europe as a whole, three groups of countries (Northwest, South and East) and three representative countries. According to the results from the models application, the main characteristic of the motorcyclists who are more likely to wear helmet, is that they fasten it frequently. On the contrary, the main factor that decreases the probability of a motorcyclist to wear helmet is helmet usage only because it is mandatory by law. 

A paper titled ‘A statistical analysis of motorcycle helmet wearing in Greece’ co-authored by G.Yannis, A.Laiou, S.Vardaki, E.Papadimitriou, A.Dragomanovits, G.Kanellaidis is just published in the Advances in Transportation Studies scientific journal. Helmet wearing in Greece was recorded through an on-site observational survey and data collected were used for the development of a binary logistic regression model. The independent variables used were time of the day, motorcycle type, road type and riders’ characteristics (gender, age and position on the motorcycle). Pseudo-elasticity values for all variables were calculated in order to quantify the impact of each one on helmet wearing. The survey revealed low helmet wearing rates. The rates are much higher in rural than in urban areas and for drivers of large motorcycles. Based on pseudo-elasticity values the variable with the greatest impact on wearing a helmet is being the driver.  

Several EU countries have a front seat belt use rate of around or more 90%. Few countries have lower rates (GR, HU, IT, PL). Rear seat belt use rate is much lower than in the front seat for most countries. High helmet wearing rates are found in most EU countries with the exception of CY, GR. 

A new campaign to reduce road casualties by promoting use of motorcycle helmets has been launched on the island of Crete by Make Roads Safe Hellas with the support of the FIA Foundation, as the first European programme of the Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative. This campaign has been preseneted at a conference held on the 24th of March 2011 at the Centre for Mediterranean Architecture in Chania. 

The 4th Pan-Hellenic Road Safety Conference was organised by the Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers and the National Technical University of Athens.

NTUA presented:

 Characteristics of lorry and bus accidents in Greece

 Application of the SUNflower methodology for the assessment of two-wheeler safety in Greece

 Correlations of road accident and meteorological conditions time-series

 Seat belt and helmet use in Greece

According to an observational study carried out by NTUA under the coordination of Prof. George Kanellaidis, 75% of motorcycle riders use their helmet. Young females (16-24) have fewer helmet use rates than young males, while the opposite is the case for the other age groups. Only 41% of motorcycle passengers use their helmet inside built-up areas. More than 90% of riders use their helmet outside built-up areas.