The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims was observed in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and the tri-city of Chandigarh.

BRIEF RREPORT OF EVENTS

Haryana

• The Haryana Police became the first Police Department to observe the United Nations World Day of Remembrance for Road Accident Victims at a State level function.
• "Half Pages" Memorial Messages were published in all leading English and Regional Languages.
• A Remembrance and Road Safety message was put on all Toll Plazas in the state, the message reached out to nearly one hundred thousand Road Users as nearly fifity thousand vehicles crossed these toll plazas.
• The Director General Police, Haryana Police was the Chief Guest at Ambala, Haryana. Nine senior police officers were also present.
• Haryana paid homage to the victims of road crashes and expressed his solidarity with their families. A two minute silence was observed and 320* balloons were released in the memory of the departed souls. He lamented the loss of 4553 lives in roads accidents in Haryana in 2009 alone.
• A twelve year old girl student read out the message of UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon on the WDOR
• The DGP honoured three residents who selflessly helped road accident victims.
• He emphasized that a coordinated effort would be made with the support of Engineering, Transport and Health departments to reduce the number of accidents in the state.
• He directed the Superintendent Police of all districts of Haryana to make a concerted effort in this direction with the support of the local people to start a crusade to decrease the Road Accidents.
• He directive to all Haryana Police staff instructing drivers of Government vehicles to practice road safety, including by wearing safety helmets, seatbelts, obeying speed limits and avoiding the use of mobile phones and other distractions on the lines of the directive given by UN, Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.
• He appreciated the services of Harman Singh Sidhu, President of ArriveSAFE in the field of Road Safety in this joint initiative of Haryana Police and ArriveSAFE.
• Harman Singh Sidhu appealed to the DGP to take up the matter with Haryana Government to form a State Road Safety Council, to raise a Memorial for Accident Victims. He appealed to the attendees to follow traffic rules and not to consider road accidents as Will of God as there are reasons behind each accident.
• ArriveSAFE designed mementos with UN "Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020" tag that were given to the decision makers.

CHANDIGARH TRI-CITY

The volunteers of ArriveSAFE sent a strong audio/visual message to the city residents by setting up an exhibition in the the city center.

• A giant public gong was hit every 24 seconds. The sound of each hit on the gong signified that another person has lost his or her life somewhere on the World’s roads.The sound drew the attention of those who would missed the exhibition.
• The message of UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon was given to the print/electronic media.

ANDHRA PRADESH

• A Non Resident India, Mr. Ananda promised to distribute the ArriveSAFE Road safety Handbooks and CDs in the local language [Telugu] in the schools of one district.
• The delivery of the books got delayed in transit otherwise they would have been distributed on the WDOR.

PUNJAB

• Events were held in three districts and the importance of Road Safety was emphasized.

Photos of Haryana and Chandigarh events at http://www.flickr.com/photos/safe_roads_india/sets/72157625326581693/

Media coverage would be uploaded on ArriveSAFE website shortly. Nearly 20 newspapers covered the event, further extending the reach of the message.

Harman S Sidhu of ArriveSafe (Web: http://www.arrivesafe.org) writes:

We have planned to mark the World Day of Remembrance 2010 in a big way. Earlier, we were doing it only in Chandigarh, but this time we would be doing it in two states, Punjab, Haryana besides Chandigarh. The aim is to reach out to at least 1,000,000 people directly and many more through the media coverage. Since we would be having events at busy Toll Plazas, achieving this target is easy. Some of these Toll Plazas cater for 30,000 - 35,000 vehicles a day.

FLOW OF EVENTS

1. 320 White/Red Balloons to be released at a prominent location of each city at 11 AM [On an average 320 people die daily on Indian roads]
2. Giant WDOR flower/disc [12 feet high] to be placed to draw people’s attention
3. WDOR flower/disc to be placed at the Toll Plazas counters with a safety message
4. WDOR pamphlet - with safety message - to be given to vehicle occupants at Toll Plazas throughout the day
5. Day long exhibition with 50 helmets and 320 WDOR logos (flowers) in sector 17 or The Lake, Chandigarh
6. Photo session near the Tank, Sector 10, Chandigarh with a message: “Wars don’t kill as many people as the Road Crashes do”
7. A giant old bell would be placed in the city centre and it be rung after every 150 seconds to grab the attention of people.

We would be partnering with the State Police Units and are communicating with some Corporate Houses, if they could come forward to join and fund the event. It has been totally a self funded event till now, a sad reality that the victims' NGOs are still not being funded. This won't act at a deterrent though.