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If the law doesn’t work, will a religious edict be more effective in ensuring motorcyclists stay safe on the roads? One community group thinks it will.

The Road Safety Association on Friday called on the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) to issue a fatwa, or religious edict, to make helmets compulsory for motorcyclists, in the hopes of reducing the number of casualties from road accidents.

The idea behind the push is that by making it haram, or forbidden in Islam, to ride a motorbike without a helmet, people will be less inclined to break the law for fear of committing a sin.

Fatwas issued by the MUI are generally considered as moral guidance, as opposed to being legally binding.

Rio Octaviano, chairman of the RSA, told the Jakarta Globe on Friday that many motorists paid little attention to traffic regulations, particularly on the use of helmets.

As a result, Rio said, motorcycle accidents had claimed many lives.

“Some people who use motorcycles do not really follow the legal regulations, but for some reason they listen to what the ulema say,” Rio said.

“That is why we went to the MUI. The fatwa is our last-ditch effort to ask people to keep their helmets on while on the road.”

According to statistics from the RSA, over the past 10 years an average of 32 people died every day on the roads — and 90 percent of those were motorcyclists.

Data from the Transportation Ministry says that 30,000 people die each year on the roads, and about 70 percent are motorcyclists.

Suripno, director of road safety at the ministry, said the ministry had been promoting helmet use since 2006. “We also asked people to put helmets on their children and babies,” he said.

Ichwan Sam, the MUI’s secretary general, said the RSA’s efforts were commendable.

He said the effort to keep people safe on the roads deserved be supported. The matter, however, would still have to go before a meeting of the MUI’s fatwa commission, he added.

Ichwan said many road-safety issues required many parts of society to work together to reduce the number of road casualties, not just the government.

The ministry, however, said that its safety campaigns were already doing enough.

“Please don’t mix a thing like this with religion,” Suripno said.