KATHMANDU: Every year around 1.5 million people die while many sustain serious injuries due to road accidents, according to Road Safety Awareness Committee of Nepal Engineers’ Association. So to remember those who are affected by road accidents, every third Sunday of November is celebrated as World Remembrance Day for Traffic Victims. This year, the day was celebrated on November 19.

Road accident is the eighth leading cause of death in the world, so this day is an opportunity for the government and authorities concerned to advocate for road safety as per engineer Dilman Singh Basnet, who is also the division chief of Community Infrastructure Division, Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) and member of Safe and Sustainable Travel Nepal and Road Safety Awareness Committee of Nepal Engineers’ Association.

Nepal is under high risk of frequent road accidents due to difficult landscape and rampant violation of traffic rules. On the occasion of World Remembrance Day for Traffic Victims, a rally with candle walk was organized in collaboration of Safe and Sustainable Travel Nepal, Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, Road Safety Awareness Committee of Nepal Engineers’ Association and Swatantrata Abhiyan Nepal in Maitighar Mandala, on Sunday. 

The rally began from Maitighar Mandala up to Nepal Art Council, Babarmahal and returned to Maitighar Mandala. Upon reaching Maitighar, the participants lit candles in the shape of number 2,385 where as many as 2,385 people had died in year 2072/73 BS in road accidents in Nepal.

Talking about the need of awareness for minimizing road accidents, President of Safe and Sustainable Travel Nepal, Hemanta Tiwari expressed, “Road accident is the eighth major cause of death in the world and the fourth major cause in Nepal. So we organized this program to aware people about road accidents and to minimize road accidents.”

According to Tiwari, one should be aware of their responsibilities while at road which can be explained as five ‘E’—Engineering, Education (awareness), Enforcement (traffic rules), Emergency (hospitality and medical facility) and Encouragement—which should be included in academic syllables of school students which helps to bring awareness about road safety in grass root level.

Nepal has been organizing various programs during World Remembrance Day for Traffic Victims since last year. Rima Basnet, member of Safe and Sustainable Travel Nepal said, “This kind of program helps to alert people about road safety and to minimize deaths due to road accident. This program aims to draw the attention of people about the number of people died in road accident in year 2072/2073 BS.”