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Press Release
3 November 2006
World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is on the
third Sunday of each November
- this year on 18 November 2007, with the message: -
"A road death is not a normal death"
Adopted by the United Nations on 26 October 2005 as World Day of
Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims - to provide "appropriate
acknowledgement for victims of road traffic crashes and their
families", this special day was initiated by RoadPeace in 1993 and
observed since then in Britain, Europe, and beyond, as the day on
which all those killed and injured in road crashes are remembered,
together with their families, the emergency services and all others
affected or involved in the aftermath.
With the annual toll of deaths alone on the world's roads of
1.26 million (3,450 a day!), this Remembrance Day is now recognised
as an important day for highlighting and publicising this major
disaster, and of illustrating the huge global scale and emotional
and economic impact on families and countries.
Following the UN's recognition last year, this year World Day
of Remembrance will be observed even more widely than ever,
with ceremonies and various acts of remembrance being held in
countries on all continents - in Australia, USA, Argentina, India,
Lebanon, Oman, South Africa, Russia and most European
countries.
Brigitte Chaudhry, RoadPeace Founder, said:
"We at RoadPeace have greatly welcomed the official adoption of
our Remembrance Day by the United Nations, especially since
national governments have to date found it tolerable, even
appropriate, to ignore the plight and suffering of bereaved and
injured road crash victims. Road deaths are sudden and violent,
like murder, but unlike murder - if considered and treated as
unacceptable, they can be prevented."
Prof Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene &
Tropical Medicine paraphrasing the novelist Milan Kundera, said
"The struggle between people and power is the struggle between
memory and forgetting and we must not forget the many millions of
people who have died on the roads. Road deaths are not natural
deaths and should not be allowed to happen."
Contacts: RoadPeace office 020 8838 5102 Amy Aeron-Thomas: 07905
847 917 Brigitte Chaudhry 020 8964 1800
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