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World Day of Remembrance: Road Traffic Victims

The National Road Safety Council together with its stakeholders is commemorating the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims at the Parliament Gardens on Friday, 20 November 2009 starting from 08h30 in the morning.

The Minister of Works and Transport, Honourable Helmut Angula will officially open the commemoration ceremony. Other dignitaries have also been invited to grace this important event on the day.

It is common knowledge that road transport among the four modes of transport is the most accident prone as it exterminate about 250 to 300 lives per year and maims thousand others.

Nearly every day, a serious road traffic crash somewhere in the world makes banner headlines. For every such news event, many other road traffic crashes – both fatal and non-fatal – go unreported because they have become like common place “routine” events.  More than 3400 people die daily on the world’s roads and tens of thousands are disabled for life. The devastation that these incidents wreak on victims, their families, friends and communities is incalculable.

The Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims first held in 1993 in the United Kingdom and organized since then by non-governmental organizations in a number of countries, was created as a means to give recognition to victims of road traffic crashes and the plight of their loved ones who must cope with the emotional and practical consequences of these events.

On 26 October 2005, the United Nations adopted a resolution which calls for governments to mark the third Sunday in November each year as World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. Observation of this day provides an opportunity to draw the public’s attention to road traffic crashes, their consequences related costs, and the measures that can be taken to prevent them. The day also provides an opportunity to remind governments and society of their responsibility to make roads safer.

Public reflection is the act of recognition. It states to the victims and their families that their humanity is valued, that their loss is our loss and that their suffering touches us too.

The NRSC will also present its festive season campaign to the public at this occasion. In terms of collaborative efforts with all communities and road user groups as well as representative organizations and bodies towards achieving our goals as articulated in the Namibia Road Safety Strategy, we are jointly running a blood-donation drive with the Blood Transfusion Service on the same day.

The drive is strategically focused on having sufficient blood over the festive season for our clinics and hospitals to assist those who might need it. This is done in terms Programme Area 6 of the Road Safety Strategy which makes provision for strategies to be in place to respond in case of emergency.

I thank you.
 
CONTACT PERSON:   
Ambrosius Tierspoor 
Chief Liaison Officer
Cell No:  0811273161
Email: ambrosius@nrsc.org.na