World Day of remembrance for Road Traffic Victims
Last year we helped tomato the 25th anniversary of the international observance of this Day dedicated to remembering the many millions of road traffic victims throughout the world – begun by the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR) in 1995 and adopted by the UN General Assembly Resolution 60/5 on 26th October 2005 as an “appropriate acknowledgement for victims of road traffic crashes and their families”.
This year marks the start of the new Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, during which the World Day will play a very important part – through highlighting the very reasons for all the necessary actions during this coming Decade.
The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) is commemorated on the third Sunday of November each year. It is a high-profile global event to remember the many millions who have been killed and seriously injured on the world’s roads and to acknowledge the suffering of all affected victims, families and communities – millions added each year to countless millions already suffering: a truly tremendous cumulative toll.
This Day has also become an important tool for governments and all those whose work involves crash prevention or response to the aftermath of crashes, since it offers the opportunity to demonstrate the enormous scale and impact of road deaths and injuries, call for an end to the often trivial and inappropriate response to road death and injury and advocate for urgent concerted action to stop the carnage.
On World Day we too pay tribute to the dedicated emergency crews, police and medical professionals, who deal daily with the traumatic aftermath of road crashes.
As every year, the objectives of WDoR 2021 are to provide a platform for road traffic victims and their families to:
- remember all people killed and seriously injured on the roads;
- acknowledge the crucial work of the emergency services;
- draw attention to the generally trivial legal response to culpable road deaths and injuries
- advocate for better support for road traffic victims and victim families;
- promote evidence-based actions to prevent and eventually stop further road traffic deaths and injuries
WDoR 2021 puts the spotlight on the reduction of traffic speeds – Low speeds, which have the potential to prevent many deaths and serious injuries, in particular those of pedestrians and all other vulnerable road users – children, elderly and the disabled.
