World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims Date in the current year: November 17, 2024

Unlike many other UN observances, the idea of this intentional day doesn't belong to the representatives of the member states of the organization. This observance was started separately by the British road crash victim charity, RoadPeace, in 1993. Its founder Brigitte Chaudhry organized the very first observance and in 1995 the General Assembly of European Federation of Road Traffic Victims supported the event. In 1998 the event was introduced in many other countries. In 2003 the WHO supported the observation. Finally the UN General Assembly invited all member countries to observe this Day of Remembrance in 2005, making it one of the UN observances by the resolution.

Annually over 1 million people die in the road accidents, 20-50 million people are injured and wounded. Observation of World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims raises public awareness of the danger of roads and spreads information about the importance of prevention of emergency situations on the roads.