TEMPE, AZ — Community members in Tempe and Phoenix are honoring those who were killed on Valley roadways last year as part of a worldwide remembrance campaign this weekend.
Sunday marks the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, aimed at raising awareness for lives lost and advocating for solutions to prevent traffic fatalities.
"Oftentimes in the US, we do treat traffic collisions just as business as usual,” Urban Phoenix Project President Nicole Rodriguez said. "World Remembrance Day for traffic victims is to give some dignity for those who have lost their lives."
Data by the Arizona Department of Transportation showed that while traffic fatalities in Arizona decreased last year, numbers remain near all-time historical highs, with 1,228 traffic fatalities across all Arizona roads.
A recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety claimed that pedestrians in Arizona are nearly twice as likely to be killed in a road collision as the rest of the country.
In Tempe, signs are posted at 17 locations across the city over the weekend, commemorating the 19 community members killed in traffic collisions in the city’s limits last year.
On Sunday at 1615 E Osborn Road in Phoenix, community members will gather at 5:30 p.m. for vigil to remember those killed on Valley roads.
Phoenix’s Annual Road Safety Action Plan Update said that although serious injury crashes are down year over year, fatal crashes in the city have risen by 16 percent compared to baseline data, with fatal motorcycle crashes up by 32 percent.
