World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

This year’s World Day of Remembrance takes place on Sunday 20 November. As every year, the objectives of WDoR 2022 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 and advocate for an appropriately serious response;
• 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

Every year, millions more road victims are added to the current toll of over 50 million killed and hundreds of millions injured since the first road death 125 years ago last August – a disaster that continues day in and day out in all countries of the world. It is an actual pandemic, affecting primarily our vulnerable and our young, which in addition to the trauma of injury and bereavement has also a devastating economic impact for countries, communities and families. Therefore, during the new Decade of Action 2021-2030 the World Day will have the important role of helping to achieve the 50% road casualty reduction target.

WDoR 2022 puts the spotlight on JUSTICE.
Traffic law enforcement, thorough investigation after a crash to find out if a crime was committed and to prevent recurrence, criminal prosecution where appropriate and civil compensation are all part of the justice system. When carried out seriously, fairly and consistently, such a system is what road crash victims who have been injured or had a family member killed as the result of someone’s law–breaking or negligence deserve and wish for, since it also represents a main factor of prevention and this would mean that lessons are learnt from their tragedies so that they may not be repeated.