World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in the Russian Federation

Counteracting road traffic crashes in the Russian Federation

Mortality from road traffic crashes in the Russian Federation is among the highest in the European Region. Even though the road safety situation is improving and mortality rates are decreasing, in 2009 Russian authorities reported that 26 084 people died from road crashes.

On the occasion of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, the Regional Administration of Lipetskaya Oblast, the Regional Police Department and WHO organized an event in Lipetsk on 21 November 2010.

Balloons with the figure "232" printed on them were released into sky before a concert took place. The figure symbolized the number of people who died in a road traffic crash in the Region since the beginning of 2010.

The Lipetskaya Oblast has been chosen as first implementation site for the global project Road Safety in 10 countries (RS10). The project includes different components, among which capacity development workshops and mass-media campaigns on selected risk factors. The first campaign places the spotlight on seat belt use and was launched at the event organized for the World Day of Remembrance. The event also included an award ceremony for a drawing competition run among all schools of the Region, which involved more than 600 children and young adolescents. At the end of the concert, actors and dancers covered for some seconds the entire audience with a huge black cloth symbolizing sorrow and grief of families and friend of the victims.