DUBLIN, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Various activities were held across Ireland on Sunday to mark the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
In Dublin, a special memorial service was held at a church at noon time on Sunday, which was attended by the family members of those who got killed or seriously injured in road accidents and the members of the emergency services.
In Westmeath, a county in central Ireland, the Irish Road Victims Association hosted a memorial service in the town of Mullingar during which white doves were released by the lakeside by the bereaved families and the members of the emergency services, and red roses were floated on the lake in memory of the precious lives lost and broken in road crashes.
The purpose of organizing such activities is to draw the public attention to the impact of road crashes and provide an opportunity for people to reflect on their road behavior, said John Paul Guiheen, an officer with the Road Safety Authority (RSA), a state agency responsible for the road safety issues in Ireland.
According to the RSA statistics, a total of 24,391 people have been killed in road crashes in Ireland since the beginning of the recording of road fatalities in the country in 1959 and over 80,000 people have been seriously injured on Irish roads since the recording of such injuries in 1977.
To date in 2019, a total of 126 people have been killed on Irish roads, according to the latest figures from the Irish police department.
Ireland plans to bring down the annual road death figures to 120 or less in 2020. To achieve the target, the Irish government has recently announced a new regulation under which drivers are required to leave at least a one-meter distance space while overtaking cyclists or they could face a fine of 120 euros (about 133 U.S. dollars) plus three penalty points.
The World Day of Remembrance for Road Safety Victims, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005, falls on the third Sunday in November every year.
