Newly-formed Richmond Families for Safe Streets to host World Remembrance Day ceremony Nov. 18
RICHMOND, VA – Victims of life-altering traffic crashes and those who have lost someone in a traffic crash have come together to form a new group called Richmond Families for Safe Streets to support others who find themselves in this situation and to advocate for change to make our streets safer.
The group’s first effort is to observe the international World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims with a memorial event on November 18. 37,000 people die every year in traffic crashes in the United States, including over 800 in Virginia. Pedestrian fatalities are increasing at an especially alarming rate: in the past 10 years rates have increased 53% nationally, 63% in Virginia, and 250% in the Richmond metro region.
World Remembrance Day for Road Traffic Victims
To observe World Remembrance Day, Richmond Families for Safe Streets will be joined by Bike Walk RVA, 1st District Councilman Andreas Addison, 9th District Councilman Michael Jones, and a member of Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s administration to announce life-saving policy objectives related to the city’s Vision Zero effort including the new Safe Streets For All Omnibus package. The event will feature memorial activities including candles and a memorial message board and is expected to draw members of the public as well as local elected officials from Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico, and Hanover.
Date: Monday, November 18, 2018
Time: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m., remarks beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Location: 800 E. Broad St, outside Library of Virginia
*rain location – City Hall
Facebook event, public: https://www.facebook.com/events/441523319699071/
“The only acceptable number of deaths on the public roadways we all use to get around is zero, and no one knows that better than those who have lost someone or had their lives irreversibly damaged because of a car crash,” says Brantley Tyndall, Director of Outreach for Sports Backers’ Bike Walk RVA program and initial organizer for Richmond Families for Safe Streets. “It’s up to all of us to save that next life.”
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