FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Cathy DeLuca, Policy & Program Director, Walk San Francisco, cathy@walksf.org, 415-610-8025 (mobile)

As This Year’s Traffic Deaths Surpass Those in 2017, Families and Survivors Urge Action on World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

21 people have died on San Francisco’s streets this year. The only acceptable number is zero.

WHEN: Sunday, November 18, 2018

3:00 PM – 4:30 PM

WHERE: Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin Street **Note new location and time due to smoke.**

(Memorial Walk Cancelled Due to Smoke)

WHAT: 4th Annual World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

• 3:00 PM: Memorial Gathering

Families and friends will have a chance to spend time and honor their loved ones through multiple activities throughout the Koret Auditorium.

• 3:45 PM: Welcome Remarks and Public Testimony
• 4:00 PM: Press Conference at Koret Auditorium, featuring Families for Safe Streets members, city and state leaders, and community advocates

On Sunday, November 18, 2018, San Francisco will commemorate the fourth-annual World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, an international event to remember the millions killed and injured on the world’s roads, together with their families, friends, and others who are affected.

Walk San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay Area (FSS) chapter of Families for Safe Streets will hold a memorial gathering, followed by a press conference. This year, FSS will call on local media outlets and elected officials to pledge to use the word “crash,” not “accident,” when referring to traffic collisions, in order to highlight the preventable nature of these life-altering incidents. At the press conference, the group will announce who has taken the pledge.

WHO:

• Assemblymember David Chiu, California District 17
• Supervisor Norman Yee, San Francisco District 7
• Ed Reiskin, Director of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA)
• Tilly Chang, Director of San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA)
• Raj Vaswani, Captain of SF Police Department Traffic Company
• Members of SFBA Families for Safe Streets, including Julie Mitchell, Neeti Chokshi, and Jenny Yu (speaking in English and Cantonese)
• Estelle Oloresisimo, District 7 resident and friend of Candida Duazo, killed this year
• Jodie Medeiros, Walk San Francisco Executive Director
• Members of the Vision Zero Coalition
• Community members

VISUALS:

• Dozens of family members, survivors, community advocates, and city leaders wearing yellow, bearing images of loved ones lost or injured in traffic crashes
• Empty chairs in Koret Auditorium, marked with the names of those killed in traffic crashes in 2018 and earlier
• Names, memories, and mementoes spread across Memory Board, Condolences Board, Survivor Board and other activities to honor loved ones
• Press conference with survivors of traffic violence and family members of crash victims
• City Hall and Coit Tower lit up in yellow lights
• Memorial posters and sidewalk decals installed at fatal crash sites throughout the city:
• Posters and decals:
  Turk and Taylor
  Ellis and Jones
  S Van Ness and Howard
  Howard and 9th
  Posters only: ~20 intersections (locations available upon request)

BACKGROUND:

San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets is a volunteer group of people who have personally survived a severe traffic crash, or whose loved ones have been killed or seriously injured in a traffic crash. The group formed in 2016 and works together to prevent crashes from taking the same toll on more families.

Walk SF’s thoughts are with all the families and friends mourning those who have been seriously injured or killed in preventable traffic crashes. For more information on San Francisco’s World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, visit walksf.org/WDR2018 and www.walksf.org. Participants are requested to wear yellow.

#WDoR2018

#CrashNotAccident

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