XXIV JMSV | INVISIBLE VICTIMS
Day: November 23 Time: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Place: Assembly hall of the College of Journalists of Catalonia
Under the title INVISIBLE VICTIMS, the XXIV Mediterranean Road Safety Conference wants to put on the table the existence of road violence and the need for a response from administrations. Assuming that road violence exists, alerts to a social problem and helps raise awareness of the need to act and that victims must be protected by the Crime Victim Statute.
Not using the correct term normalizes unacceptable events and validates values such as aggressiveness or values that prioritize immediacy over life.
We know that the majority of traffic accidents are avoidable and that many are the result of recklessness such as excessive speed, alcohol consumption, distractions, etc. behaviors contemplated in the Penal Code.
Furthermore, the data show that these are not isolated events. We see, for example, that in 2021 in Spain there have been more than 200,000 accidents with victims of varying degrees, so it is a structural problem and our conclusion is that there is a lot of aggressiveness in mobility.
These data allow us to speak with all authorities about road violence. A violence not recognized by society and that requires comprehensive action by administrations in terms of prevention, protection and care for victims.
Beyond the data not recorded in the statistics, these are never real since they do not give the real dimension of the problem. We know that about 4 people around the victim of accidents resulting in death or injuries with lifelong consequences will have their lives significantly affected. The scope of the consequences of traffic accidents is even greater than officially recognized, so it is not a minor problem.
From the NGO “Prevention of Traffic Accidents” – P(A)T – we know that the characteristics of these types of events cause a very different grief and a slow recovery that is even more harmed in cases in which the judicial system does not have take into account possible revictimization, both of primary and secondary victims.
The European Directive on the Rights of Victims of Crime is currently being debated in the European Parliament and from P(A)T we have asked European parliamentarians to take trafficking victims into account since the reality is that the Statute of The victim of crime does not protect the victims of so-called traffic accidents. We must be clear, these are not accidents and we are facing a problem of road violence.
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