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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Reporter

The Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) will on Saturday hold the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDoR) commemorations at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (Hall 4).

The Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development Felix Mhona is expected to officiate.

The commemorations, meant to remember road accident victims, will be held under the agenda Remembering Road Traffic Accident victims.

According to TSCZ, Zimbabwe’s road crash fatality rate increased from 1 836 in 2016 to an average of 2 000 deaths per year – over five deaths per day – from 2017 to 2019.

The objectives of WDoR 2022 are to provide a platform for road traffic victims and their families to remember all people killed and seriously injured on the roads, acknowledge the crucial work of the emergency services, draw attention to the generally trivial legal response to culpable road deaths and injuries and advocate for an appropriately serious response, advocate for better support for road traffic victims and victim families and to promote evidence-based actions to prevent and eventually stop further road traffic deaths and injuries.

WDoR is commemorated on the third Sunday of November each year.

It is a high-profile global event to remember the many millions who have been killed and seriously injured on the world’s roads and to acknowledge the suffering of all affected victims, families and communities – millions added each year to countless millions already suffering.

The Day has also become an important tool for Governments and all those whose work involves crash prevention or response to the aftermath of crashes, as it offers the opportunity to demonstrate the enormous scale and impact of road deaths and injuries, call for an end to the often trivial and inappropriate response to road death and injury and advocate for urgent concerted action to stop the carnage.