This Financial Year, the Performance Contracting Secretariat included Road Safety Mainstreaming as the latest cross cutting issue, to be coordinated by the National Transport and Safety Authority. In response, NACOSTI established a Road Safety Mainstreaming Committee, to coordinate road safety initiatives within the Commission. The Committee committed to a number of deliverables under this item. One such target was the participation in events organized by the National Transport and Safety Authority, one of which is the observance of the World Day of Remembrance of Crash Victims (WODR).
The World Day of Remembrance of Crash Victims is a day set aside by the United Nations General Assembly, dedicated to remembering the many millions killed or inured in road crashes, their families, communities as well as to pay tribute to the dedicated emergency crews, police and medical proffessionals who daily deal with the traumatic aftermath of road death and injury ( indeed, close to 1.3 Million lives are lost worldwide and another 52 million are injured).
The event further offers an annual opportunity to increase public awareness on the burden of road traffic crashes on our nation, and to emphasize the need to promote efforts to manage this Socio -economic and public health challenge. Locally, about three thousand lives are lost annually due to road crashes and many more injured, all leading to a loss of about kshs 300 billion or at least 5% of our GDP. It is therefore not an understatement to say that we are all affected by the Road Crashes.
The day is observed every third Sunday of November annually. This year’s event shall be marked on the 15th of November 2020. There will however be no major physical event because of the current Covid protocols. The theme for this year’s event is REMEMBER, SUPPORT, ACT.
REMEMBER those we have lost through road traffic injuries (RTIs), SUPPORT road traffic injury victims including the families who have lost their loved ones to RTI ACT by doing something practical within your capacity towards the reduction of RTIs.
NACOSTI through its Road Safety Mainstreaming Committee has prepared and will share some key road Safety messages with staff and partners by running them on its website and social media and posting them on other strategic areas such as the parking bays, reception areas and other entry points before, during and after the 15th of November 2020.
As road users, our prayer is that we shall all join hands to make our roads happier and safer. Do not hesitate to share any helpful feedback.