World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims

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 world’s roads and tens of thousands are disabled for life. The

devastation that these incidents wreak on victims, families, friends and communities is

incalculable.

Remembrance Day London, England

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.

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 world’s roads while walking, cycling, or

driving.

They will never return home.

Another 20–50 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.

Remembrance Day In Italy 2005

“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

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.

...Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s 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.

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.

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, Prevención de (Accidentes) de Tráfi co, Spain

We would like to remember….

Kacy Burdett Kevin Pecor

Anthony Bragga Mr. Renzeler

Eric Fenton Patrick Riley

Tommy O'Brien Christopher Taylor

Steve Kavanaugh

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…

“Ode to a Butterfly”

Thou winged blossom, liberated thing,What secret tie binds thee to other flowers,

Still held within the garden’s fostering?Will they too soar with the completed hours,

Take flight and be like theeIrrevocably free,

Hovering at will o’er their parental bowers? 

And yet the soul of man upon thy wingsForever soars in aspiration; thou

His emblem of the new career that springs when death’s arrest bids all his spirit bow.

He seeks his hope in theeOf 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.