This document summarizes information about the World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims, which is observed annually on the third Sunday of November. It notes that over 3,400 people die daily in traffic crashes worldwide, with millions more injured each year. The day aims to honor and remember those who have died or been injured in road accidents, and to raise awareness about the enormous human toll of traffic fatalities and injuries.
2. Nearly every day, a serious road traffic crash
somewhere in the world that makes banner
headlines. For every such news event, many
other road traffic crashes both fatal and non-
fatal go unreported because they have become
such routine events. More than 3,400 people
die daily on the worlds roads and tens of
thousands are disabled for life. The
devastation that these incidents wreak on
victims, families, friends and communities is
incalculable.
4. On 26 October 2005, the
United Nations General
Assembly adopted resolution
60/5 on improving global
road safety. The resolution
called for the third Sunday
in November to be recognized
as an annual day of
remembrance for road traffic
victims.
5. Road traffic collisions kill and injure millions of
people every year
With over 1.2 million people killed each year, road crashes
are a leading cause of death.
Over 3400 men, women and children are killed every
single day on the worlds roads while walking, cycling, or
driving.
They will never return home.
Another 2050 million others are injured each year.
The sheer size of the death toll is staggering.
The tragedy is worsened as it is mainly the young and
healthy, those in the prime of life and supporting their
families, who are killed.
7. This Sunday is the World Remembrance Day for Road
Traffic Victims. I invoke the compassion of the Lord for all
those who have tragically lost their lives on the road. I ask
God to support the injured, often suffering for life, as well
as their families, who help them in their trials. I call on the
motorists for carefulness and responsibility, so that all
drivers will always respect others.
Source: prayer by Pope John Paul II in 2001
9. The third world war nobody bothered to declare
Seventeen million dead,
And counting.
More than twice the number in the death-camps,
Eighteen times the count in Korea.
Seventeen Vietnams.
A hundred and thirty times the kill at Hiroshima,
Eight thousand five hundred Ulsters...
The Hundred Years war in a week.
The crusades in under thirty seconds.
A humdrum holocaust...the third world war nobody bothered to declare.
Source: excerpt from Autogeddon (1991) written by the British poet Heathcote Williams. The
lines were cited in the 1997 press release for European Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic
Victims.
11. ...Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Lifes longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams...
Source: The Prophet, (1991) by the Lebanese philosopher Khalil Gibran.
These lines were cited in ceremonies in South Africa and London.
12. There are more than 1,700 fatalities and 840,000
injuries yearly due to vehicle crashes on public
highways in the United States.
In Massachusetts there are 141 fatalities per day.
That is one death every 13 minutes.
13. This day is important as comfort to the bereaved, who
seem forgotten by the justice system, the authorities
and modern society, and also to raise awareness of
this wholly preventable worldwide disaster.
Anne-Lise Cloetta, International Relations,
Prevenci坦n de (Accidentes) de Tr叩fi co, Spain
14. We would like to remember.
Kacy Burdett Kevin Pecor
Anthony Bragga Mr. Renzeler
Eric Fenton Patrick Riley
Tommy O'Brien Christopher Taylor
Steve Kavanaugh
15. We should all keep in mind the first people
arriving at the scene and the emergency services
who deal with the aftermath of these tragedies.
They are in our thoughts and prayers.
To the families and friends of those who are
victims of such accidents our deep heartfelt
thoughts and prayers are with you
16. Ode to a Butterfly
Thou winged blossom, liberated thing,
What secret tie binds thee to other flowers,
Still held within the gardens fostering?
Will they too soar with the completed hours,
Take flight and be like thee
Irrevocably free,
Hovering at will oer their parental bowers?
And yet the soul of man upon thy wings
Forever soars in aspiration; thou
His emblem of the new career that springs
when deaths arrest bids all his spirit bow.
He seeks his hope in thee
Of immortality.
Symbol of life, me with such faith endows!
by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
The Butterfly
Symbol Of The Beauty And Fragility Of Life And A Very Powerful Symbol Of Life
After Death.