World Day of Remembrance for Road Accident Victims

World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is celebrated every third Sunday in November. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the memory of millions of people who lost their lives or were injured in road accidents.

World Day of Remembrance for Road Accident Victims is also a day that pays tribute to all dedicated members of the ambulance, police and health workers who provide emergency assistance to the injured on a daily basis, and deal with the traumatic consequences of death and injuries on the roads. It is also the day when possible ways of stopping and mitigating this plague of the modern age are pointed out.

World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims was first organized by Brigitte Chaundry, the founder of RoadPeace in 1993. Two years later, World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims was marked under the auspices of the European Federation for Road Traffic Victims (FEVR) as European Day of Remembrance. Ten years later, on October 26, 2005, the UN General Assembly adopted the official commemoration of this day as “appropriate recognition for the victims of traffic accidents and their families.”

This year, World Day of Remembrance for Road Accident Victims is marked under the slogan “Roads have their stories” – which aims to emphasize that roads are not just a way to get from point A to point B, but that they often have their tragic stories that must remain remembered. This year’s theme is based on the second pillar of the global plan of the Decade of Road Safety Activities (2011-2020) – safer roads and mobility.

One traffic accident happens every second in the world, and almost a million and a half people a year lose their lives on roads around the world. In the past 25 years, more than 30 million people have lost their lives on roads around the world, while one billion have been injured, which is a total of the population of the 125 largest cities in the world.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina alone, in 2017, there were 37,628 traffic accidents in which as many as 298 people lost their lives, 12 of them were children, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Auto-Moto Club (BiHAMK) announced. 10,229 people were injured in traffic accidents, of which 1,608 suffered serious injuries. Improper speed and driving under the influence of alcohol are the most common causes of traffic accidents.

For the past 25 years, the celebration of World Day of Remembrance for Road Accident Victims has aimed to raise public awareness of the problem of frequent road deaths and to enable victims to share their loss and pain with others around the world.

Creating an appropriate global culture related to road safety is one of the basic messages of celebrating this day. Marking the World Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Traffic Accidents requires greater responsibility of all road users, as well as traffic participants. At the same time, the competent state bodies are required to, in addition to preventive actions and initiatives, react adequately and quickly after traffic accidents, the BiHAMK said in a statement.

The Faculty of Transportation of the International University of Travnik is continuously working on activities aimed at reducing the number of traffic accidents, especially with fatal consequences, as evidenced by numerous successful projects in which students participated under the mentorship of the dean and professor of the Faculty of Transportation Travnik.