Plans for a national road victim memorial

Brigitte Chaudhry welcomes support for this overdue landmark

Public memorials to people killed in the course of violent events, disasters and wars are common throughout the world and Britain has a vast number of commemorative memorials in the capital and the regions.

On the second anniversary of the Paddington rail crash, in which 31 people were killed, a memorial was unveiled at Ladbroke Grove, NW London, in a ceremony led by the Bishop of Kensington. The £300,000 cost of the monument was reported as having been shared by the Government, Railtrack and the two railway companies involved. A newspaper report quoted the sculptor, who had also produced the monument at the site of the 1988 Clapham Junction disaster, as saying: "The monument is big and bold, which is what the relatives of those who died wanted. They have been keen for a memorial which is symbolic of the horror of the tragedy - I hope the relatives will be comforted by what has been created"

As for deaths in road crashes, Britain can claim the dubious honour of starting the global road casualty epidemic 106 years ago with the death of Bridget Driscoll at Crystal Palace on 17 August 1896. Carnage of terrifying proportions had begun with that first road death, claiming over one million lives worldwide year after year - the equivalent of the 3,000 Trade Centre tower victims every single day!

In Britain, some 500,000 people have been killed and 30 million injured, which means that road death and injury represent a phenomenon which is likely to affect most citizens in their lifetime, either directly or indirectly as relatives and friends.

The ongoing disaster has been described as 'a humdrum holocaust - the third world war nobody bothered to declare' by Heathcote Williams in his book Autogeddon.

The absence of any public memorial to this huge victim group is astonishing. For the victims of road crashes, which our charity represents, this is yet another very obvious and public message that their tragedies, compared to those of the victims of rail crashes and other disasters, do not matter and are not worth acknowledging, the more hurtful because of the manifest unfairness.

Road victims too need a focal point for expressing their loss and grief - at anniversaries and special events, such as during August National Road Victim Month or the Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on the third Sunday in November. And the nation needs such a memorial as a reminder that this national disaster does not need to go on and that it can be prevented.

Like Budapest, Milan and Rimini, London will finally have such a monument erected, to commemorate the lives lost on Britain's roads over more than a century.

RoadPeace launched a National Memorial Fund at a major international and inter professional conference in Westminster - marking our charity's 10th anniversary, on 6 June 2002. Lord Falconer, Home Office minister for victims and Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, have pledged their support at that conference, and pledges and donations have since begun in earnest. Transport for London (TfL), who have a target of reducing the 300 road deaths in London and the 44,494 reported injuries, with all associated enormous costs to Londoners, have pledge £10,000, a substantial 'first memorial brick'.

A Memorial Committee is being set up, which will have all relevant professions represented to ensure that the long-overdue Road Victim Memorial will represent a fitting 'statement of our collective desire to halt the epidemic that has plagued our streets', as Jenny Jones, GLA member, put it in her article on the memorial in the Guardian of 5.6.2002.

If you wish to contribute to the memorial plans, offer support or donate to the Fund, please write to RoadPeace, Memorial Fund, PO Box 2579, London NW10 3PW.