Kelowna holds National Day of Remembrance event

Kelowna marked the National Day of Remembrance for road crash victims with a ceremony in the parking lot of Orchard Park Mall Wednesday evening.

Kelowna based lawyer, Paul Hergott, organized the ceremony for the eighth straight year.

“So, the hope is that events like this will bring attention to road safety and we’ll be motivated to make a change for the better,” Hergott said.

Dozens attended the event, many to remember loved ones lost to car accidents.

Hideki Mimura travelled from Japan to Kelowna for the third time to speak at the event.

His daughter, Melissa, was killed on the Coquihalla in April of 2017.

She was 21 years old, and weeks away from graduating from UBC Okanagan.

“I want to make sure her painful experience won’t be wasted,” Mimura said. “There shouldn’t be anyone else who has to go through this difficulty.”

Paul Hergott also hopes people will be motivated to lobby for tougher traffic safety laws.

“We know that distraction is one of the biggest problems for road safety and science has told us that it’s the brain being away from the road that’s the real problem. And science has also told us that hand held and hands free cell phone use is identically distracting and problematic, yet we are telling people that it’s OK to talk on the phone and voice to text as long as it’s hands free,” Hergott said. “That sets us backwards for road safety.”