On Sunday, 21 November, the Brahma Kumaris Transport Wing in India held a live stream event for World Day of Remembrance. The Transport and Travel Wing of Brahma Kumaris is involved in the field of education and value-based progress in the transportation, travel, and tourism sectors. YOURS – Youth for Road Safety Head of Communications – Manpreet Darroch joined the dignitaries to commemorate the victims of road crashes around the world.
World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims
The World Day of Remembrance is an international event commemorating the victims of road crashes around the world. It also supports the families and friends who have experienced the loss of a loved one because of this tragedy.
Different groups and organizations around the world organize different activities to raise awareness of the road crash epidemic and call on governments and stakeholders to address these issues to save lives on the road.
For this day, Brahma Kumaris organized a collective and meditative session, touching more on the collective connection between the community. BK Kavita, Coordinator of Brahma Kamaris’ Road Safety Initiative, talked about how the global community has a shared responsibility when it comes to protecting our friends and families on the road.
“The safe decisions we make, or do not make, determine not only our safety but the safety of all travelers as well.” – BK Kavita
The rest of the speakers, coming from nine different countries, spoke about the road safety situation in their countries. They shared the challenges of implementing road safety policies, the best practices they were able to implement, and the work that is still to be done.
Youth and Road Safety
During his intervention, YOURS Head of Communications Manpreet Darroch spoke about road crashes as the leading killer of youth worldwide. From the 1.3 million deaths recorded by the World Health Organization, Manpreet emphasized that more than a thousand of those are youth aged 16 to 29.
“This is not just an alarming statistic but is also representing a dream not realized, it represents a family that’s been shattered and an empty seat at the dinner table, an empty space in a community that can no longer be filled. Every death is an injustice to every young person I’ve met from around the world.”
He also spoke about the young leaders from Belize who recounted experiences of how they lost up to four of their friends to road crashes. These young leaders decided to take action to make sure that this tragedy never happens again. Through YOURS, the organization Belizean Youths for Road Safety (BYRS) was established. The BYRS is a non-profit organization that specializes in the facilitation of workshops for youth in Belize.
“Every day, we lose a future activist, an artist, a doctor, a change maker to a man-made epidemic that really needs real action.” – Manpreet Darroch
At the end of his intervention, Manpreet invited young people who want to take action for road safety to join the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety.
The Coalition provides its members with tools, resources, partnerships, and more, to support them in creating and implementing road safety projects in their communities with the goal of reducing the number of road-related deaths and injuries by the year 2030.