World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims falls on Sunday, 15 November. In Rome, the diocese has scheduled a remembrance gathering for Saturday, 14 November at the Santuario della Divina Misericordia on Via dei Penitenzieri. The gathering starts at 10:30 and Mass begins at 11:00, Rome time. Organised motorcyclist groups and parents from Sicily are expected to attend.

The figures accompanying this year’s remembrance cover 2025. Italy recorded 177,207 crashes involving personal injuries, 237,822 injured people and 2,868 deaths. The count excludes crashes that were not recorded by law-enforcement authorities. Compared with 2024, crashes rose by 2.2% and injuries by 1.7%, while deaths were said to have fallen by 5.3%.

For Europe, the European Commission estimates roughly 100,000 seriously injured people, broadly unchanged from the previous year. European road deaths were said to have fallen by 3% to 19,350. Worldwide, the World Health Organization estimates 1.16 million road deaths, while the global road-mortality rate declined by 21% between 2011 and 2025.

Remembering Elena Aubry

The event is also linked to the public campaign of Graziella Viviano, whose daughter Elena Aubry died in Rome in May 2018. In her letter to the President of the Italian Republic, Viviano says Elena was 25 and was riding a motorcycle on Via Ostiense when she lost her life. She attributes the crash to the severely damaged road surface, tree roots and inadequate maintenance.

Viviano says the loss prompted her to campaign so that another family would not endure the same tragedy. In the letter, she asks for public recognition of the remembrance day and argues that the Quirinale has not issued a related statement for three years. She also says that around 3,000 families are devastated every year by a death on the road. The motorcyclists gathering in Rome therefore connect remembrance with the practical demand for safer infrastructure and prevention.