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The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) is commemorated on the third Sunday of November each year – to remember the many millions killed and injured on the world’s roads, together with their families, friends and many others who are also affected.
Objectives
- 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.
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.
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 26th 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”.
- 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.
