This coming weekend, many Israelis will celebrate the new civil year with a lot of alcohol, but will this deter them from driving afterwards?
According to data obtained by Israel Hayom, the volume of annual reports on the subject is already quite close to what it was before the Corona years - 6,777, as of the beginning of the month.
The data of the Israel Police show that in 2019, 7,257 reports were given to drivers who were caught with alcohol levels higher than the legal limit in their blood, but in the year after that - the peak year of the corona virus, which included closures - there was a drastic decrease of 42% in the number of reports, which amounted to only 3,089, including on New Year's Eve.
Mobile for drunkenness testing on New Year's Eve (archive),
In 2021, most of which were without closures but with a green sign and closed entertainment places, the number returned and climbed to 4,357 reports that were distributed to drivers who were caught drugged or under the influence of drugs.
Data received by Or Yerok Association reveal that Tel Aviv-Yafo is not only a non-stop city, but also the capital of reports to drivers in Gilofin, for years - including during the Corona years. Thus, in 2019 the number of reports to drivers who consumed too much alcohol or used In drugs on 964, in 2020 it was reduced to only 281, and in 2021 it increased to 466 (see the table).
The solution: enforcement and deterrence
The sharpest decrease was recorded in Haifa, which dropped impressively from 639 reports in 2019 to 150 reports last year.
Haifa and Jerusalem were the only cities that maintained a sequence of declines in the three reported years.
Attorney Yaniv Yaakov, CEO of Or Yerok, says that drunk driving is one of the most serious traffic offenses: "A driver who drinks alcohol and consciously chooses to get on the road, disregards the lives of other road users."
According to him, "Adding hundreds of police officers and vehicles to the traffic police could have prevented more and more ticking bombs on the roads. At the same time, the punishment should also be deterring, and in a way that would send a message that drunk driving is a wrongdoing whose punishment is harsh and not worthwhile."
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