The event promoted by the State Police on the occasion of the World Day in Remembrance of Road Victims, an event which is celebrated every year on the third Sunday of November, took place today in the Messina Town Hall.
The initiative, organized by the Messina Traffic Police, aims to spread the culture of road safety, based on the value of life and respect for the person, especially among younger people, future drivers and road users.
During the meeting, the photographic exhibition “On the streets of beauty – road safety in a snapshot between art and territory” was inaugurated, created thanks to the collaboration between the Traffic Police and the Sicilian Photographic Archive. Present at the official opening were the Mayor of Messina Federico Basile, the Prefect Cosima Di Stani, the Police Commissioner Annino Gargano, the Director of the Eastern Sicily Traffic Police Department Maria Grazia Milli, the Director of the Provincial School Office Leon Zingales, the Vice Rector of the University Giuseppe Giordano and other civil and institutional authorities.
The heart of the exhibition is a series of shots taken by the photographer Luigi Nifosì, who immortalized the work of the Polstrada in some of the most evocative and symbolic places in Sicily from the heights of the State Police helicopters. Also present was a large representation of Messina high school students, accompanied by teachers.
The inauguration was conducted by the Gazzetta del Sud journalist Natalia La Rosa, who for years has been involved together with the Traffic Police in legality projects aimed at young people. Inside Palazzo Zanca, students and families of road victims were welcomed in a symbolic collective embrace. A particularly touching moment was the memory of Stefano, 17 years old, a student from Messina who lost his life in a road accident.
His mother, Deborah, representative of the Italian Association of Family Members and Road Victims, shared her story and addressed a strong and profound message to the children: “I am here for my son. Stefano needs his mother to go and talk to the children and their parents. Society needs it, because the children must all return home. If my testimony can help change the way they drive and approach the road, I can give meaning to what has happened, transforming pain into help concrete for others”.
The photographic exhibition can be visited until 12 January 2026 in the halls of the Transatlantic Area of Palazzo Zanca, with the aim of offering citizens a space for collective reflection on the topic of driving responsibility and the protection of life. The initiative continued in the Hall of the Peloritana Academy of Dangerous Vehicles, where the issues related to road safety were explored in depth thanks to the students’ questions addressed to the Director of the Messina Traffic Police Antonio Capodicasa, to the photographer Luigi Nifosì, to Professor Anna Maria Rosaria Muscatello, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Messina, and to Professor Rosalba Panvini, archaeologist at the University of Catania. The experts underlined how art, science and culture can become powerful tools to spread legality and promote conscious behavior on the road, helping to save human lives.