World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

20th NOVEMBER 2022

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#WDoR2022

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.

design: Yoana Marinova

Guidelines

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About WDR

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.

History

The World Day has a long history:

From 1995, road victim organisations under the umbrella of the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR) observed this Day together – first as European Day of Remembrance, but soon as World Day when NGOs from Africa, South America and Asia joined.
10 years later – on 26^th October 2005 – the World Day was adopted by the UN General Assembly as “the appropriate acknowledgement for victims of road traffic crashes and their families”.
To make the World Day officially an independent entity, to ensure secure and competent management and a far wider reach through systematic round the year promotion and help and advice to organizers, the World Day was registered as a Foundation in August 2021.
Now the World Day is commemorated across all continents – not only by NGOs advocating for road safety and road victims, but also by governments and all related and relevant stakeholders.

World Day of Remembrance ARCHIVE