The deputy delegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, participated today in the act in memory of the victims of traffic organized by the City Council of A Coruña, which was held at the Bus station of A Coruña on the occasion of the Day of the Victims of Road Violence.
In her speech, the subdelegate took the opportunity to call on all the institutions involved in the prevention of road accidents or in the response to the consequences thereof “to join with the objective of giving visibility to the work we do in the prevention, training and planning of our road networks”.
María Rivas expressed the importance of celebrating tributes like this, which provide the opportunity to remember and raise awareness of the real danger on the roads. “Not only in Spain but throughout the world, every year 1.3 million people die worldwide as a result of a road accident, and more than 50 million are injured, many of them with permanent consequences,” said Rivas.
In particular, last year’s data from Galicia add up to 2,381 casualties, in which 90 people lost their lives and 309 were left with serious or very serious consequences. In the province of A Coruña, the data reflect a total of 964 accidents with victims, with 43 people dead and 153 with serious or very serious consequences in the past year.
In this regard, the subdelegate said that “for each of the victims, for their families, for their friends and loved ones” the Government remains committed to “continue working to raise public awareness about the personal and social impact caused by road violence” and to “achieve a country without deaths on the roads”.
María Rivas invited the whole of society to reflect and empathize with the victims and their families since “we are all potential victims every time, every day, that we do something as usual as moving from one place to another” and highlighted the efforts of entities, administrations and associations that, through the celebration of activities such as this, demonstrate that “we have an active civil society committed to our objective of reducing more and more accidents on the roads”.
María Rivas concluded her speech by thanking the intense work of all the organizations that work to prevent traffic accidents and their consequences, a work that she described as “essential” due to the factor of “awareness, prevention and support for victims and their families.” “From the administrations we must help to place the entities at the center of the road safety policy, give you a voice and visibility, because you work so that no one else ever goes through what, in the first person, others have already gone through” said the subdelegate.
The event was presided over by the Councilor for Innovation, Infrastructure and Mobility, Nereida Canosa and was read by the president of the association Stop Accidents, Jeanne Piccard. In addition, the attendees performed a minute of silence, which ended with a floral offering in memory of the victims of trafficking.
The World Day in Remembrance of the Victims of Traffic Accidents, today renamed Victims of Road Violence Day, was born of a United Nations agreement in October 2005 so that every third Sunday of November the whole of society will pay tribute and become aware of the millions of people who die on the roads every year around the world.
Thus, in Galicia and throughout the world, different activities and acts are carried out to give voice to the loved ones and families of the victims who died or suffer some kind of sequel caused by a traffic accident.