[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16955]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        WORLD DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I am proud to add my voice in support of H. 
Con. Res. 86, a resolution supporting the goals and ideals of a world 
day of remembrance for road crash victims.
  Each crash might seem to us, in its immediacy, like an isolated 
tragedy, but when we step back, we see that each has its part in a 
global crisis that is deepening year by year. The day of remembrance--
set by the United Nations General Assembly for the third Sunday of 
November--is not just for the 40,000 people who die in road crashes 
each year in America. It is for the 1.2 million who die in crashes in 
every part of the world and for the staggering 20 to 50 million who are 
injured. In fact, the World Health Organization predicts that, by the 
year 2020, the death rate from crashes each year will surpass the death 
rate from AIDS.
  True, many of these crashes are unique disasters, but that leaves 
many more whose causes are systemic and preventable. Unsafe roads, poor 
medical facilities, and inadequate driver education all contribute 
their share to the death toll. Unsurprisingly, the toll is highest, and 
rising, in middle- and low-income countries. Road safety, then, is an 
issue of economic justice.
  On the world day of remembrance, we will recall all of the victims of 
road crashes; we keep their families in our thoughts, and we pray for 
the full recovery of those still living. But our compassion for 
individuals must not obscure the bigger picture. ``We have to change 
the way we think about crashes,'' said Diza Gonzaga, the mother of a 
car-crash victim in Brazil. ``The majority of people think that crashes 
are due to fate. We have to think of a crash as a preventable event.''

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