Sunday 15 November 2020 marks 25 years of global observance and 15 years since the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims was recognised by the UN. iRAP is proud to support #WDoR2020.

The objectives of WDoR 2020 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;
• advocate for better support for road traffic victims and victim families;
• promote evidence-based actions to prevent and eventually stop further road traffic deaths and injuries.

In 2017, iRAP released a song that captures the tragedy that happens – One by One – too often on the world’s roads (put together by iRAP and a group of volunteers). In 2020, our message is the same – one by one is one too many.

In Sweden earlier this year, iRAP launched the Vaccines for Roads resource to acknowledge and highlight the tragic face and true extent of life-changing road crash injuries incurred every single day.

Every day, 56 people are left quadriplegic, 161 are rendered amputees, 914 are ‘degloved’, 932 suffer severe acquired brain injuries and 20,865 suffer limb fractures. In total 102,835 predominately young people suffer life changing injuries or death. USD$6 billion of new costs are added to health, insurance and welfare costs, every, single, day.

Thanks to TAC and Vital Strategies we are able to share their stories.  Stories of a life with brain injury, quadriplegia, spinal injury and limb fractures.  Stories of a loved one lost.  Stories that began with a preventable hit pedestrian crash, run-off road crash, head-on crash, intersection crash, bicycle or motorcycle crash.  Stories of courage and despair.  Real stories of human impact – and our need to apply the Vaccines for Roads and the other safe system actions that will prevent crashes and needless suffering.

These real stories of human impact help us remember those who have suffered from these terrible tragedies, but also help us learn and inspire – how can we all work together towards a world free of high-risk roads? Towards saving lives and reducing serious injuries on our roads around the world?

Vaccines for Roads unlocks the potential of the world’s largest road infrastructure safety database to explore how safe the world’s roads are and provide the Business Case for 3-star or better roads for all road users worldwide. With knowledge of the human and financial impact, the current condition of the world’s roads; the Business Case for Safer Roads and case studies of success, we have the moral imperative, the policy setting, funding mechanism and recipe for scale.

Now with the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 announced, there is an opportunity for harnessing the successes and lessons of previous years and building upon them to save lives on the world’s roads and facilitate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Second Decade of Action for Road Safety will continue to reinforce 12 Global Road Safety Performance Targets, including Target 3: All new roads to be 3-star or better and Target 4: >75% of travel on the equivalent of 3-star or better for all by 2030.

iRAP will continue to work with our partners in over 100 countries around the world to eliminate high-risk roads and make our roads safer for all road users – #3StarorBetter. We know we have the potential to save lives – one by one – as we already are. Upgrades of roads from Belize to Brazil, Chile to China and Uganda to the UK are saving lives each and every day, for years to come.

iRAP has a number of resources available to support the next decade of action, including:

• Ten-Step Plan for Safer Road Infrastructure (document and webinar resources)
• iRAP Star Ratings of NACTO-GDCI’s Global Street Design Guide
• Global infrastructure KPIs support Action Plans to achieve 2nd Decade Goals
• Vaccines for Roads – iRAP’s Big Data Tool
• iRAP Training opportunities

As with every year, we pause this #WDoR2020 to #RememberSupportAct for #3StarorBetter roads that protect and saves lives

If you want to find out if there is a WDoR 2020 event near you click here