Singapore World Day of Remembrance 2022 – Opening Speech by Mr. Thanaraj Ramakrishnan Pillai, Founder of Brze

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Introduction

Good Afternoon Everyone. Welcome to the World Day of Remembrance 2022 event.

World Day of Remembrance (WDoR)

World Day of Remembrance also known as WDoR, was started by Road peace in 1993 for traffic victims.

a)   Since then the World Day of Remembrance has been observed and promoted by the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR)

b) United nations later endorsed it in 2005 as a Global Day for traffic victims.

c) The United Nations and World Health Organisation encouraged all road safety stakeholders to commemorate the World Day of Remembrance for traffic victims.

d) On this day, we pay tribute to all traffic victims that were killed on our roads, and those who have been severely injured, support families who have lost their loved ones and take action to save lives.

e) Lastly we pay tribute to the front liners like the Traffic Police, Singapore Civil Defence Force, Land Transport Authority, and all Medical professionals for their tireless work.

Road Safety

Globally, there are 1.3 million deaths and 50 million injuries occur each year.

 a) In Singapore there were 107 fatalities and 7184 injuries in 2021.

 b) In the first half of 2021, there were 3,012 traffic accidents compared to 3,159 accidents in the same period in 2022.

c) Motorcyclists and pillion riders accounted for 55% of all traffic injuries and 56% of traffic fatalities in the first half of 2022.

d) The area of concern would be elderly pedestrians and motorcyclists. Traffic Police and other stakeholders are doing their best to address this matter.

WDoR Theme for 2022

This year’s theme for WDoR is JUSTICE.

a) Whilst, law enforcement agencies are carrying out JUSTICE by taking action against errant road users, let’s do JUSTICE by being a responsible road user.

b) Let’s encourage all our friends, colleagues, and families to do the same.

c) We hope Traffic Police and other road safety stakeholders will recognize WDoR and raise awareness of WDoR to the wider community.

 d) Road safety is a collective responsibility, let’s all drive safe, ride safe, cycle safe and walk safe.

Concluding Remarks

I would like to thank everyone for taking time off to make this day, special. Thank you Thaaru Maaru runners, Singapore Harley Riders, Riders Aid Singapore, Otis cycle team, all guests, sponsors, and volunteers.