World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims 2017 is marked on the third Sunday of November of each year to commemorate the millions of people killed and injured on the world's roads, to morally support their families and friends and to attract public attention to this serious social problem, consequences and costs associated with it, as well as preventive measures.
Also, on this day, we thank the emergency services for their role and the immediate intervention to save lives in cases of road accidents; we reflect on the impact of road deaths on families and the community in general; and we draw attention to the need for better legal framework, awareness of the seriousness of the problem being addressed, precarious infrastructure, technologies and immediate post-accident actions to save as many families as possible from the tragedy of losing a loved one.
The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims was launched by the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR) and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UN) in 2005. The theme of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in the current year is "2020 Objective: Reducing Road fatalities and serious injuries by 50%".
It refers to UN Objective 3.6 for Sustainable Development, which calls on Governments and stakeholders, including NGOs and ordinary citizens, to address the personal, medical and financial difficulty caused by road deaths and trauma. According to the existing data, 1.25 million people lose their lives in traffic, leaving behind families and communities destroyed by road accidents, and tens of millions are seriously injured. The impact of such events is devastating and the responsibility to save lives on the roads is laid on both the individual and the collectivity.
Road accidents are the number one killer among young people aged 15-29 and the eighth leading cause of death among all people around the world. It is estimated that in developing countries between 1% and 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) is lost each year as a result of road accidents. Ms. Lotte Brondum, the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Road Safety NGOs, mentioned: "World Day of Remembrance is an important opportunity to join the global community to commemorate road casualties and end the crisis on roads around the world. No one has to go through the unnecessary, painful and preventable loss of a child, brother, mother, friend killed in a road accident.
The theme of this year - reducing the number of deaths by 50% by 2020, reminds us of the need to lead responsibly, educate our children and promote at Government level the correct application of policies to protect traffickers and to prevent suffering the loss of someone on the road. "
According to the data provided by the National Patrol Inspectorate, in the first 10 months of this year, 2046 road accidents were recorded in the Republic of Moldova, resulting in 203 deaths and 2340 others were severely traumatized, 259 accidents involving minors, resulting in 9 fatal cases and 263 serious trauma cases.