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(VEN) - Movie Star Kathy Uyen and Australian Idol Thanh Bui will become Goodwill Ambassadors for the public awareness campaign to announce The World Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims, initiated by the AIP Foundation in coordination with the Ho Chi Minh Traffic Safety Committee. Together with more than 100 nations in the world, for the first time, Vietnam will join this meaningful event to remember road crash victims, empathize with the suffering of the injured and bereaved and their families. In addition, the event will raise public awareness of road traffic deaths and injuries and call for increased response to prevent road traffic injuries.

In 1993, Road Peace initiated the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Accident Victims. It was known for several years as European Day of Remembrance, and is now being observed annually across an increasing number of continents. On 27 October, 2005, the United Nations endorsed it as a global day to be observed on the third Sunday in November each year. This year, World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Accident Victims is celebrated on Sunday 21 November 2010.

Worldwide, over 3,500 people are killed and around 100,000 injured every day. The price in terms of human loss, grief and care is immeasurable. The impact of road traffic crashes is long-term and crosses generations. The scale of the problem is vast; each year millions of road traffic crash victims and their families are added to the large group of people already affected.

Yet this needless loss of life and suffering does not receive proper attention or acknowledgement. Many of those killed and injured on the road are young, which is why the sense of loss and waste is all the greater.

Joining this campaign as goodwill ambassadors, Actress Kathy Uyen and Singer Thanh Bui will carry out many meaningful activities, including visiting road crash victims, meeting with government officials to identify solutions to prevent road traffic crashes, and capturing public attention to traffic safety through mass media.

“We commemorate this special day in honor of the victims and their families,” said Mirjam Sidik, Executive Director of AIP Foundation. “During the Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020), we will work with global stakeholders to reduce the death toll of this epidemic by 50%.”

Says Thanh Bui: “Australia has its own road safety problems but they are very different from Vietnam – there it’s mainly about cars driving too fast on wide open roads. Here the large number of mopeds in crowded conditions means the focus really is about awareness of other vehicles and making sure everyone has adequate head protection from helmets – and that means children too. It’s not compulsory for children to have helmets yet but I’m still shocked by the number of children of all ages I see without helmets. You can’t replace the life of a child”.

Source: VEN