Vietnam marks World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims this week
Wednesday, November 04, 2015, 14:45 GMT+7
Vietnam will commemorate the annual World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in the northern province of Nam Dinh on Sunday.
The requiem will be organized by the National Traffic Safety Committee and Vietnam Buddhist Sangha at Thien Vien Truc Lam Monastery in the province.
From 5,000 to 6,000 people are expected to partake in the commemoration.
The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is commemorated on the third Sunday of November each year to remember the victims killed and injured in road accidents around the world, together with their families, friends and others who are also affected, according to the organization’s official website.
The Day was first started by RoadPiece, the United Kingdom’s national charity for road crash victims, in 1993 and was adopted by the United Nations (UN) pursuant to the General Assembly’s resolution in 2005, according to the UN’s website.
There are approximately 20 people killed and 70 suffering from permanent injuries in accidents on the roads of Vietnam each day, causing around VND300 billion (US$12 million) worth of damage, Khuat Viet Hung, vice president of the National Traffic Safety Committee, said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Nearly 7,200 people died from traffic accidents in the ten-month period ending on October 15, down almost 3.9 percent year on year, according to the National Traffic Safety Committee.
The requiem was also held last year on November 9 in Ho Chi Minh City with the participation of more than 5,500 people, according to radio station the Voice of Vietnam.
