Join us on 11/17 for World Day of Remembrance!

Key road safety bills are stalled right now at the State House. Will you help us press lawmakers to act?

World Day of Remembrance 2019
Sunday, Nov. 17
2:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Massachusetts State House (24 Beacon St., Boston)

On Sunday, we’ll join our partners in the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition for World Day of Remembrance, an annual, international event that honors those who have been killed or injured in traffic crashes. By staging a public demonstration on the steps of the State House, we will highlight the scale of this epidemic and demand more urgent action on our streets. 

Traffic crashes kill 40,000 people annually in the U.S., though the vast majority of these crashes are preventable through better policy and infrastructure. In Massachusetts, we’ve been lobbying for several bills this legislative session that would reduce traffic violence. Yet despite strong support for those bills, legislators have yet to make them law.

Here’s what you can do to help change that:

• Stand in solidarity — Join us on Sunday for World Day of Remembrance. Attendees are encouraged to wear yellow in remembrance of lives lost. RSVP on Facebook here, and help us spread the word via social media by using the following hashtags before and during the event: #WDoR2019 #CrashNotAccident #SafetyOverSpeed #VisionZero
   
• Invite your State Representative and Senator to join you at World Day of Remembrance.
   
• Demand action  — Contact lawmakers and ask them to pass the bills listed below. The buttons beneath each bill will take you to forms where you can easily send a personal message to lawmakers who represent you and/or can play a big role in advancing those bills.

We’ve made encouraging progress this legislative session, and with a little more pressure we can convince lawmakers to pass much-needed legislation.

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Road Safety Legislation

An Act preventing distracted driving (S.2245 / H.3793) — This bill would ban handheld use of cell phones while driving. Massachusetts is the only state in New England without such a law. The Senate unanimously approved the legislation in June and Gov. Baker has endorsed it, but the House has yet to act. UPDATE: Gov. Baker signed this into law!

An Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities (S.2042) — This bill includes a range of measures to curtail crashes, including reducing speed limits, codifying a safe passing distance around cyclists and other vulnerable road users, mandating side guards on state-owned trucks, and more.

An Act relative to automated enforcement (S1376) *— This bill would allow cities to deploy speed, school bus and red light cameras to better enforce traffic laws, a policy which has been proven to reduce speeding and unsafe driving, prevent crashes, and reduce repeat offenders.

*Thank you to the almost 150 of you who emailed your legislators and chairs of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security about this! We sent a powerful message to the Statehouse in support of automated enforcement.