Every year, the World Day of Remembrace for Road Traffic Victims is signified through days of poignant activities to mark the tragic loss of lives on our roads all around the globe. In this article, we note one of our youth member’s achievements in bringing attention to this day and vowing to commit to road safety on all levels. The National Youth Parliament of the Gambia are featured here.
Mr Siaka Dibba is one of our most active members of the global youth network for road safety. Through his representative organization, The National Youth Parliament of the Gambia, Mr Dibba was instrumental in 2010’s World Crossing Campaign at YOURS and having submitted the best video in the global awareness campaign went on to run a massive national road safety effort in The Gambia supported by YOURS. On top this, Mr Dibba is a champion for youth rights in The Gambia and Africa as a whole and continues to fight relentlessly for youth and road safety issues in the region.
We felt it a fitting tribute to the World Day of Remembrace for Road Traffic Victims which was commemorated on Sunday 18th November to reproduce Mr Dibba’s statement on the WDR which was given national circulation via The Point news outlet.
“Every year, since 2005, the 3rd Sunday of November is commemorated worldwide as the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. November 18 marks the 8th year. The theme for the 2012 commemoration of the occasion is “From Global Remembrance to Global Action across the Decade – Now is the time to learn from the past”.
This year’s theme is a combination of the motto for the first ever Decade of Action for Road Safety, launched by the UN and WHO in May 2011, and the specific theme for 2012 – now is the time to learn from the past.
It relates to the call in Pillar 1 of the Global Plan for the Decade for ongoing monitoring and evaluation, through relevant data system, of road danger, road crashes, and their causes and impacts.
It is a day of memory and mourning, as well as commitment at all levels. Wherever there is a cross or a wreath along our roads, it means that our efforts, despite the hard work, were not sufficient enough, that more could have been done and that more needs to be done.
Road Traffic victims deserve to be remembered and honored: they were our children, colleagues, beloved friends or next door neighbours. Their injuries and tragic deaths, in many instances avoidable, have created voids in our lives, stole our joy, denied us their invaluable contributions to national development and left families with never ending grief. We owe the injured, the hospitalised and the departed the obligation to make our roads safer. This is a clarion call that all must heed, and all must roll up our sleeves and build up results.
As young people and youth parliamentarians, we will actively continue to sensitize road users and intensify our advocacy work for better road, infrastructure and vehicle safety, and a reduction of key risk factors, such as drink driving and speeding, in order to minimize, and ultimately eliminate, road traffic crashes and victims.
We call on the Government to establish, as a matter of priority, a lead agency that would examine our road safety history and coordinate the effective implementation of our road safety policies and strategies. A zero tolerance for road traffic crashes will save more lives.
In conclusion, we also call on everyone, including religious leaders, to remember and pray for road traffic victims during their church services and Friday prayers.
Let’s make 2011-2020 a Decade to remember!”
As the youth movement continues gain momentum in Africa, over in Kenya, our Regional Coordinator for Africa Ms Sheila Atieno conducted a march in commemoration of the World Day of Remembrace.
We continue to support this movement in Africa against the ever robust backdrop of action with the adoption of the African Youth Declaration for Road Safety (attached) and the launch of the Caravane Project.