Government failure to deal with accidents: 2021 - The deadliest road accident in the last four years

Pedestrians, private car drivers and passengers of two-wheeled vehicles - all pay the bloody price of road neglect and lack of investment in infrastructure and enforcement.

The increase in the number of fatalities is particularly severe among pedestrians, cyclists and young drivers.

The USSR calls on the state to budget a "long-term national plan"

Keenan Cohen

30/12/2021

Thursday, 30 December 2021, 20:55

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Three people killed in a car overturn at the Tamra junction in the Lower Galilee (Photo: MDA operational documentation)

The conclusions of the Road Safety Authority's summary report published today must be considered a breaking point with regard to the government's treatment of road accidents. Similar things were said here already in October, when the report on road safety trends was published, A person has been added to the death toll, which today stands at 361. And this is not yet the final figure, which will be published on 1.12022, and will also include the injured who died 30 days after the accident.

2021 ends as the deadliest on the road in the last four years.

"The State of Israel must and can change the situation by adopting and budgeting a long-term national multi-year plan, as formulated by the RALBAD and the Ministry of Transportation," says Snir Seidel, the RLBD's acting director general. Action by a variety of relevant parties in the government and local government. "

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Green Light CEO Erez Kita noted that "every day a person is killed in a car accident. Every day another family joins the bereaved family. Children, mothers and fathers, grandparents. Whole families falling apart because of the carnage on the roads."

According to him, the reason why 2021 is one of the bloodiest in the last decade is the many years of neglect.

"We all walk the streets and roads and feel the great insecurity and apprehension. We have already come to know that when the government invests the required budgets, the death toll drops significantly and grief and pain are spared from many families."

Kita calls on the government to change priorities and return the money taken in recent years from road safety budgets, to change the trend.

"This is the responsibility and commitment of the current government, and this is what the public demands of it to do," Kita said.

The largest number of deaths is among users of private vehicles (Photo: MDA)

Of the 361 killed, private car users make up the largest share - 33%. But the tougher figures are linked to an increase in the number of fatalities among pedestrians and passengers of two-wheeled vehicles, groups that have been neglected by authorities for years. Pedestrians make up 26% of all fatalities, of which 95 are fatalities, and cyclists - 23%, who are 84 fatalities. The number of riders killed, which in 2018 was 14 percent of the total, has been steadily rising over the past four years. The statements regarding the provision of instructions, changes to the driving instructions, the reduction of the tax on protective accessories for two-wheeled vehicles, the encouragement of taking advanced riding courses and the implementation of life-saving improvements in the infrastructure - remain on paper only.

Another clear risk group that pays the price of neglect is the young drivers.

56 deaths from the general list are young, including 51 aged 20-24.

In this case, too, it is a trend that has registered a steep increase since 2018, of 42%.

Someone in the Ministry of Transport should ask himself if there is a connection between these numbers and the reform of tests that was introduced four years ago.

The deterioration does not miss the heavy vehicle either.

This year, 71 people were killed in accidents involving a heavy vehicle, compared to 60 on the multi-year average of 2018-2020.

Even in this case, promised measures such as the use of a digital tachograph, the establishment of designated rest areas (and not just marginal extensions) - remained merely statements.

Spotlight: Decrease in fatalities among electric cyclists (Photo: MDA)

Failure to grant a right of way - the most fatal offense

One bright spot in this hard report belongs to the electric bike. In this area, there was a 26% decrease in the number of deaths, from 19 to 14. There is also a decrease in the number of injured. This can be largely attributed to two fundamental safety factors: improving infrastructure such as bike paths, and enforcing the rules of riding and helmet use.

The report also lists the traffic offenses that led to the fatal accidents. Among them is the non-granting of the right of way to pedestrians, which is responsible for 19 percent of deaths. Non-compliance with traffic lights is in second place, with 12 percent and in third place, the overall concept of "excessive speed", which refers to speed in relation to road conditions, law, case and more - with nine percent. Here, too, the helplessness of the authorities is evident: how many speed cameras did you see on the roads today? How much enforcement at crossings and traffic lights? The answer can teach about the size of the problem.

Minister, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Finance and the Interior - on their door step of all these faces urgent task to implement - a delay of more than a decade - contingency plans for dealing pinpoint risk factors and the allocation of budgets and powers to guarantee the ability of Hrlb"d fill the role.

Week One week later, one Knesset member, Boaz Toporovsky, chairman of the subcommittee on road safety, stands on the Knesset podium and reads the list of those killed in road accidents.

Perhaps if the other 119 MKs had also taken responsibility for this gray struggle, the roads would not have been painted red.

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