The neglect of the roads in the territories is a phenomenon that has been going on for years.

Everyone will be shocked until the next accident

A shortage of police, a lack of manpower, and wild driving by Palestinians on YOSh roads make driving them a dangerous gamble. A month and a half ago, the Knesset's Research and Information Center published a report on the matter, but nothing was done. Yesterday, 6-year-old Matan Zinman was killed in a head-on accident after Dangerous overtaking of a Palestinian driver

Kenan Cohen

07/28/2022

Thursday, July 28, 2022, 2:31 p.m. Updated: 3:04 p.m.

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In the video: documentation of dangerous detours and driving in the opposite lane on Judea and Samaria roads (Photo: Or Yerok)

The neglect of the roads in the territories of Judea and Samaria is not a matter of the left or right government.

This is a phenomenon that has been going on for years and includes the lack of enforcement, bullying on the road, dangerous and dangerous driving, complete disregard for traffic laws, as well as improper cars that continue to move on these roads and endanger their environment.

Yesterday she made headlines under unfortunate circumstances, following the head-on accident in which 6-year-old Matan Zinman was killed, after a Palestinian female driver allegedly made a dangerous overtaking and hit the family car.

Already a month and a half ago, the Knesset's Research and Information Center published a detailed report on the state of the roads, safety and enforcement in Judea and Samaria at the initiative of Knesset member Orit Strock.

The findings in it will not surprise those who drive these roads on a regular basis - but should have turned on all the red lights among those responsible for this situation.

Above the practical failures in the field, there is a problem that is not related to paving, enforcement or the number of police officers in the field - the basic problem is the lack of data regarding accidents involving Palestinians.

Since these are not transferred from the police to the Central Bureau of Statistics, they do not enter the evaluation basket anyway and result in a missing picture that does not reflect the safety situation on these roads.

As a result of this, it is not possible to define them as red roads, those with a level of risk that requires allocation of budgets to improve infrastructures, prioritization of enforcement, allocation of personnel for enforcement, etc.

The scene of the accident in Binyamin, yesterday (photo: official website, Moked Binyamin)

You don't need statistical studies to understand the situation on the ground.

Also based on the data that currently exists, a breakdown of the types of accidents, and the involvement of Israelis and Palestinians in them, reflects the reality very clearly.

Of the 1,633 accidents that occurred in Judea and Samaria from the beginning of 2019 until the first quarter of 2022, the rate of fatal accidents involving Palestinians alone stands at 14%, while that involving Israelis stands at 5%.

Just for the sake of comparison - the national average is 3%.

Even the central link in the field of safety, that of enforcement, is nothing less than a sad joke entirely at our expense.

The national traffic police does not operate at all in Judea and Samaria, so enforcement relies on the district's traffic unit.

"Leaning" is perhaps a big word for about 20 vehicles that have to cover 1,500 kilometers of roads in Judea and Samaria.

However, even when Palestinian drivers are arrested, the registration of the report itself is nothing more than a nuisance of time for the Palestinians and a waste of paper for the Israeli taxpayer.

In the absence of addresses, phone numbers or any other means of identification, there is no way to verify that the fines are paid.

It is estimated that by the end of 2021 the total amount of unpaid fines will be NIS 275 million.

More in Walla!

A serious car accident near Ariel: a 6-year-old boy was killed, 6 others were injured

To the full article

Matan Zinman, who was killed in an accident in Binyamin yesterday (photo: courtesy of the family)

Another issue in the report concerns the issue of the "restored" - those cars that are seriously damaged in an accident, are sold to the areas and find their way back to the roads, without any supervision of the nature of the repair and their level of safety.

The issue hit the headlines at the beginning of last December, after the accident of the Mooded family.

From the traffic safety data on the roads operating in the territories of Judea and Samaria, where surprise inspections are carried out for cars, it appears that only 14.7% of the vehicles inspected were found to be in good condition, while the national average is 51.2%.

Of these, 2.9% were defined as dangerous in a way that requires immediate removal from the road (0.3% in the national average).

But publishing the data doesn't change anything, because there's no practical way to verify that these cars actually get the required repairs or are taken off the road.

The current report of the Knesset Research Center joins previous reports, police position papers, what the Ministry of Transportation has known for years, what the IDF prefers to ignore, and what was written in the State Comptroller's report.

The bottom line is that without a policy change regarding road safety in Judea and Samaria, there will not be any general change.

But a change in road policy does not take place in a vacuum, but is related to the strategic decision not to decide what to do with Judea and Samaria.

When it comes to a security background, any attempted stabbing or injury to the soul results in a massive reinforcement of companies and battalions of fighters to the various sectors, but when it happens on the roads, everyone is comfortable shrugging their shoulders and treating it as fate.

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