On Friday, November 14, 2025, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., the public is invited to gather at Memorial Hall, Capitol Building – 600 E Boulevard Ave, Bismarck, ND 58505 for the annual World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDoR) event hosted in North Dakota.
The event is open to all who use the roads — drivers, cyclists, pedestrians — and features a moment of silence, a temporary memorial display, and a renewed call for safer streets in Bismarck and across the state.
Road-traffic incidents remain one of the leading preventable causes of injury and death worldwide — and the theme of WDoR this year, “Remember. Support. Act.”, reflects the urgency.
Locally, the event is organised by the North Dakota Department of Transportation Safety Division (NDDOT Safety Division) through their Vision Zero programme, highlighting the state’s commitment to “Zero fatalities. Zero excuses.”
In Bismarck and the surrounding region, everyday road-use — commuting, school runs, biking, walking — touches all of us. The memorial offers a moment to pause, remember loved ones lost, and realise how even simple actions (buckling up, not speeding, avoiding distractions) can save lives.
At the event, attendees are encouraged to bring a pair of shoes or a personal item to contribute to a temporary memorial — symbolising the lives lost whose “shoes will never be filled.”
“What that represents is, these chairs will remain empty, but we can still fill them with the remembrance of them,” said Lauren Wahlman, Safety Public Information Manager at NDDOT, in a previous year’s vigil.
As we gather in Bismarck on Nov. 14, we not only honour those lost on our roads — but we also reaffirm our commitment: to drive responsibly, to look out for each other, and to demand safer streets for all users. Because road tragedies aren’t inevitable — they can be prevented.
