• news

• News in Israel

• Society and welfare

Dozens killed and thousands injured each year: the price of neglect in the field of heavy vehicles

Officials, research and official documents present a worrying picture of the Ministry of Transport's lack of oversight of the field, leading to fatal road accidents.

The State Comptroller has already given a failed score, and one thing is agreed upon: the finger of blame should be pointed not at the person behind the wheel - but at the decision-makers

Tags

• car accidents

• Trucks

• Buses

• Department of Transportation

• Road Safety Authority

Keenan Cohen

Saturday, October 31, 2020, 3:00 p.m.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments

• Macron on the attack in Nice: "We are under terrorist attack because ...

• Gamzo: We will increase enforcement in Arab society, and if we need to ...

• 3 killed in attack near a church in Nice, the terrorist beheaded ...

• After the abduction from the hospital: Thousands at the funeral funeral ...

• Rivlin at the memorial service marking the 25th anniversary of Rabin's assassination: We must ...

• Hadassah Hospital informs the first participant in a vaccine trial ...

• Documentation: Dozens of Druze steal the bodies of a sheikh to bring him ...

• An immigrant ship sank off the coast of Senegal on its way to Europe, ...

• Four days before the election, Trump and Biden are holding events ...

• Netanyahu: If the morbidity rises in a certain city and it becomes ...

In the video: A gas truck caught fire in a car accident in Haifa, a large explosion was prevented on the spot (Walla! NEWS system)

April 10, 2013. Truck driver Paul Trailer Amos, who was traveling from Nesher to Haifa, loses his brakes on a steep section due to overuse.

The truck, which is speeding unstoppably, reaches a speed of 93 km / h inside a residential neighborhood, hitting a line of cars waiting at a traffic light with tremendous force and crushing everything that stood in its way.

Due to the truck's weight and speed, four times. results of the accident, then rocked the entire country - fatal. seven were killed and 25 wounded. his initial sentence included a plea bargain with the driver to four years in prison. after his appeal the sentence, aggravated punishment for five years.

more than seven years have passed since then, accidents Additional hardships involving heavy vehicles have occurred since then and an overview of the Ministry of Transportation's handling situation in the field leaves a not easy feeling. They have learned nothing. The bill is presented to us by the public in the form of dozens of deaths a year. In 2019 alone, the number was 91, to which thousands of wounded must be added.

More on Walla!

NEWS

• Smutrich: "Regev's position on the metro - cheap populism";

  Transport Minister: "Progress"

• The Economics Committee has decided: Airlines will return passenger money within 30 days

• Welcome we got rid of: The method to get rid of nail fungus

In the Ministry of Transport did not learn anything.

Road accident in Nesher, 2013 (Photo: Eran Gliwarg)

"The human factor is being blamed all day, but the king is naked," said Gabi Ben-Harush, chairman of the Council of Leaders. He has been carrying this message with him for years.

The regulation passed last week in the Economics Committee has enormous significance (requiring heavy vehicle drivers to undergo professional training - KK), it can not be that someone holds a license for ten years, does not undergo any training. The police do not undergo professional training, driving instructors have not completed professional training Years. "

"We are stuck with the 1961 regulations," he continued.

"So it was a horse and cart compared to the monsters that exist today. So how can you, both the Ministry of Transport and the courts, work and rule according to a regulation from 1961? Everything here has been defective from the root for decades."

Meir Elram, former director of the National Road Safety Authority, believes that the obligation to continue training is a huge number for the field, but the problem is far from being solved.

"This is the first time, at least as far as I know a professional driver is required to be trained, but it is still not enough," he said.

"Drafting regulations requiring mentoring by companies accredited to drivers according to their driving classification and also periodic fitness tests for drivers have been submitted by in the past but have not been amended."

In his remarks, Elram refers to the fact that there is a huge gap between schooling and the actual skill required of the driver.

There are currently no Paul Trailer trucks in driving schools, but the driver, who can only be 20 years old, receives the license and is allowed to drive this vehicle, which he has not learned to drive or be tested on.

And these are large, complex tools that must train drivers to operate.

"The drivers are hostages, and that's modern slavery."

A truck accident in Maalot, 2015 (Photo: MDA Spokeswoman)

According to all interviewees, the very fact that a driver with a heavy truck license can work on any vehicle is a fundamental mistake.

The characteristics of one truck are not similar to another truck.

The clearest example is concrete mixers, in which quite a few cases of rollovers are recorded, since the drivers do not know or do not understand the effect that the rotation of the drum with the concrete has on the behavior of the truck.

"Such a driver comes to a left turn and then with the torque of rotation the concrete container just throws the truck in the same direction," Ben Harush explained.

"And tomorrow this driver is going to drive a tanker, or a car carrier and we are once again looking at a whole Torah of driving these vehicles - but no one is teaching them."

An installation concerning anchoring cargo according to the standard, which was passed during the week, is also a vital addition.

According to professionals, there are now 40-year-old supporters who, for the purpose of transporting cargo, are welded to a binding ring in various locksmiths.

Ground visibility grave consequences: A few months ago an accident occurred in which a truck APC dropped for this reason. A study by the army in cooperation with the leading council indicated that the equipment was outdated, and rings for tying welded metal workshop in stark contrast to repair, since the ring must be connected to the chassis of the trailer.

"On This superficial weld was loaded with an 18-tonne ADF, how do you expect it to hold the ADF? ", Ben Harush wondered." 25-ton steel cylinders each carry, apparently, the cargo is tied with chains, but it is not tied to anything "This ring is fiction."

"The police are not cooperating."

An accident in which a truck driver was killed, this month (Photo: MDA operational documentation)

The deeper you try to find out the source of the training disability, the more neglected it becomes.

At the end of May 2019, Farid Abu Thaya, a national transportation inspector from the Vocational Training Division, wrote a letter to the director of the Curriculum Unit in the Vocational Training Division of the Ministry of Labor.

From the letter that reached Walla!

NEWS indicates that the last lecturer course (Transport Instructors course) ended 27 years ago.

Since then, for many years no courses have been run and it has been almost impossible for new instructors to enter.

This is despite the fact that in the same year new criteria were formulated that allowed entry without a lecturer course.

Surprisingly, even then the number of lecturers did not increase significantly.

The reason - strict criteria, not necessarily professional, and a long process.

The result - a violation of the opening pace of new courses, old and worn out lecturers and the achievements of the instructors.

"Some of the veteran lecturers who hold supervision certificates are not up to date with the changes that have taken place in recent years: traffic regulations, licensing procedures, areas of technology, in the pedagogical field and research methods," it read.

At the end of the letter, Abu Thaya's proposal for a curriculum for a new lecturer course is attached, more than a year has passed since its submission, but no change has been made.

No supervision, there is rendering

The area of ​​supervision of the heavy vehicle is in the hands of the safety officers, who are in charge of ensuring the health of the vehicle and the driver's competence.

There was a positive idea behind the decision, but on the way to actual reality things went wrong.

Over the years an option has been added to employ independent safety officers who provide service to companies operating a small truck fleet.

The idea stemmed from the desire to allow supervision even for smaller companies that own a few trucks and are not committed to hiring a factory safety officer.

But very quickly things started to go wrong.

The chairman of the Association of Safety Officers, Shimon Sudai, said that his complaints were not answered. "I have several times asked a senior member of the traffic police to check what is happening.

After all, every heavy truck moving on the road has a driver's license and has the signature of the safety officer in charge of it, "he claimed." I asked them: When you do a test, write down the safety officer's certification number and his name, and give me an answer. It's true he works there.

I have never agreed to this story because I know there are a lot of forgeries of stamps and people signing certificates that are incorrect, and the police do not cooperate with us. "

Shimon did not give up and the union turned to investigate the issue from a different direction. In 2013, a statistical significance was confirmed by a researcher from Tel Aviv University, that trucks supervised by a factory safety officer had significantly fewer defects than those supervised by an independent safety officer. A further inspection in 2016-2018 led to the same conclusion when the Ministry of Transport was asked to disclose this data. 2018, denied that they were in his hands, until the Safety Officers Association's appeal to the Freedom of Information Commissioner revealed this.

"All drivers will not get proper conditions - there will be no change on the roads."

Truck accident, 2017 (Photo: MDA)

"We did a test in which over two years we took all the accidents that involved trucks and we wanted to see if there was a gap between vehicle fleets that have factory safety officers and those that are external," said Meir Elram.

"On the face of it, it was discovered that the trucks, which were supervised by outside safety officers, were more involved in road accidents."

"That does not mean that independent safety officers are all not good. But in my opinion, a much more effective factory safety officer, he knows the company, sits there physically, lives what happens in it, is more accessible and involved," he added.

But there is another aspect to the problem of safety officers - their oversight.

Here, too, there is a consensus that the whole issue of state control over inspectors is weak, and these things are said in almost every report in the last two decades.

"At the time there were four supervisors of safety officers who did checks on their work. One retired, another left and so the state's oversight of this issue is also very lacking," Elram concluded.

Shimon Sudai, presents another disturbing angle of the subject.

"I am not at all talking about what is happening with tankers or transporting hazardous materials, there is currently no legislation of close surveillance of this truck," he said.

"You have to follow him and know at all times where he is. Those who carry hazardous materials must not stop or get off the lane set for them. But who supervises this driver? The cargo department gives the permits, but does not supervise it."

Violations of the law also in the backyard

Had this struggle been symmetrical, it would have been easier to accept the situation between violators and the authorities.

However, when blatant violations of the law occur with the knowledge of the Ministry of Transportation, at his home - it is already very disturbing.

It happens right in the backyard of the Department of Transportation, in the ports, where cargo abandonment is celebrated.

Four axles are supported by law and as stated in the vehicle license are defined as those that can only be loaded with exceptional cargo, but they are loaded with a general cargo weighing 70 tons to circumvent the weight limits of the truck itself which stands at 50 tons.

"This is a clear violation of the law of the Ministry of Transportation," Ben Harush said.

Documents from the ports show how the supporters are allowed four axles to set off laden with general cargo.

"And I ask the CEO, what's going on here?

Are we a third world country? ", He continued." Inventions are invented, but I do not want permits and favors - I want it in law and regulations. "

The safety mobility area of ​​the Ministry of Transportation is far from a source of pride, on the contrary. "The Ministry of Transport's safety vehicles need to be upgraded, they are not computerized enough, their weights are already old, two of them will be out of use at the end of the year because the Ministry of Economy's lab will no longer allow them to continue using them," said Meir Elram. The fact was asked by civil servants that at three o'clock in the afternoon they were already on their way home.

It's not like the police who decide to make an operation in the afternoon or at night.

They work hard, but it is not enough. "

A ticking time bomb

Also on the issue of supervising the working hours of drivers the criticism towards the Ministry of Transport does not cease.

"There is a huge shortage of drivers and company owners send people to work 17-18 hours a day. These are ticking time bombs. Drivers drive a vehicle that weighs tens of tons, at high speed, and they just fall asleep at the wheel. Drivers are hostages, and this is modern slavery," said Orr. Green and pointed to the solution in the form of the digital tachograph.

The use of a digital tachograph, which enables close and accurate monitoring of the driver's working hours and warning of deviations from them, has long been used in Europe.

In Israel, however, a conflict between the Working Hours and Rest Law and the regulation of working hours of the traffic laws does not allow its use.

According to sources in the field, it turns out that trucks and buses arrive in Israel with this important system, and then it is dismantled and the old cardboard discs are installed in its place.

In 2010, the Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety claimed in response to a request from the Green Light Association that they had completed their staff work and were prepared to absorb the digital tachograph.

Ten years have passed since then and the heavy vehicles still travel with the old tachograph as is the case in third world countries.

"This foot-dragging Costs Lives. Must speed up the process and reduce the safety gaps inconceivable European countries," said CEO Erez Kita green light.

"If the government decision has been adopted European standards in other areas, so let's adopt the standards Of working and rest hours.

As for the digital tachograph, which is currently hoping to enter at the end of 2021. "Elram said, adding that" as far as I know, the big concern is that it will lead to an increase in demand for drivers.

We have 68-hour drivers, less in Europe.

"Because there is a shortage of drivers anyway, there is an internal decision not to touch the regulation."

"Extinguishing fires by adding traffic regulations."

Road accident near Tzipori, August (Photo: MDA)

Ben Harush is furious at this argument.

"When they tell me this thing, I answer - then there is no need for these drivers. Let there be fewer drivers, that companies will suffer, but if the price is drivers who go through their driving hours and cause accidents - then that's the price."

Shimon Sudai added his angle.

"Regarding the shortage of heavy vehicle drivers, the State Comptroller touched on the things I said to them. As long as the Ministry of Transport does not define the bus or heavy truck driver as a professional driver for everything - then there will be no improvement. People will not go for that, because treat drivers, sorry for the phrase "Like toilet paper - used and thrown away. As long as the status of the professional driver is not defined and he does not receive proper wages and conditions - we will not see a change in the roads."

When it comes to conditions, the talks focus on the rest parking lots for drivers, the ones that will allow them a safe stop for refreshment after long hours.

For more than 15 years, the Ministry of Transportation has been dragging its feet on the issue that comes up in every discussion.

"In 2017, they said they would return to the Economic Affairs Committee within two weeks with regulations that match those of Europe and settle the matter. To this day, they have not returned," Ben Harush said.

Regulations in clinical death, the citizens in real death

Another consensus among the interviewees concerns the unwillingness to legislate and amend.

"Over the last few years in all the discussions I have had on this issue, I have realized that they do not want to touch on it for one reason - it is a law whose amendment requires primary legislation. Instead they continue to put out fires by adding traffic regulations," Sudai said of the transport ministry.

Elram also agrees with this position.

"I once thought it was a problem of governance, and that there were not enough sections and regulations. Today I do not know how to give an explanation of how these things are conducted there," he said.

They also agree with the dismal conclusion that the courts have a hand in this situation.

Judgments and decisions reveal a very unfortunate picture.

The Transport Services Law has a liability clause for the driver, the truck owner and the transport company and there is another clause for the forwarder's liability - the one who loads a load on the truck for profit.

The courts and the prosecution have never prosecuted the forwarder, not once.

"I have often approached the State Attorney's Office and the police and asked that the forwarder be prosecuted according to law," Ben Harush said.

"Regulation 20 Transportation Services Act - Shipping Liability, this is a law from 2005. What did they do with it? Nothing. Unfortunately in many cases do not even come to the hearing, everything is closed between the lawyers in plea bargains. I tell the judge 'listen to an expert opinion before a decision'. "And he looks at me like I fell from the moon. Just close the bag and move on."

More on Walla!

NEWS

State Comptroller's Report on Transportation: Heavy Weight Neglect, Electricity Progressing Too Slowly and Jerusalem Public Transport

To the full article

In the same accident in Nesher, you can find any of these components: defects in an unexamined truck, a safety officer who signed it in good condition without checking, a driver who did not undergo training, abnormal loading of cargo, failure to maintain rest hours, closing a case in a plea deal, and failure to prosecute The forwarders.

"So they'll go and get another driver, but what did it contribute to preventing the next accident?" Ben Harush said.

Alram added: "It was a chronicle of an accident. Drivers who saw him already in the morning told him that his brakes were smoking. They woke him up and he ignored. The vehicle was with hundreds of defects, from the truck itself to the connection of the cart."

Shimon Sudai concluded: "If a small part of the conclusions of the investigation of the terrible accident in Nesher had been implemented, we would be talking today about something else. This is a terrible accident in which six civilians were killed, and the world as usual. The things presented there in the police and Ralbad conclusions are terrible.

"The State Comptroller gave the Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety a failing grade on road safety in the heavy vehicle."

Everyone agrees on one thing - the problem is the human factor, but not the one that is often pointed the finger of blame. It is not the person behind the wheel of the truck, but the decision-makers. The legislature, the executive and the judiciary - all on the bench.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments