The traffic accident near the Lehavim intersection (photo: Kivi Ash, Benny Ben Simon, Zohar Guetta, MDA spokesmen; editing: Matan Haddad; narration: Liron Bari)
Seven years in prison was sentenced yesterday (Sunday) in the traffic court in Be'er Sheva to Salem Abu A'anem, who was convicted of negligently causing the death of eight women in a serious accident in the Lahavim region of the Negev in 2015. This case, for which it can be said that for each woman killed, the driver received a sentence of Less than a year in prison, raises the question of why the penalties in serious traffic accidents are so low.
Hanam was driving his truck, to which were attached tractors that constituted an extraordinary and unusual load in terms of its scope and the weight that the vehicle could carry.
In addition, he was also speeding, so that while the speed limit was 60 km/h - he was driving at a speed of 77 km/h.
At one point, he hit a bus in which there were female passengers who were returning from prayer at the mosque, and as a result, eight female passengers were killed and 29 other female passengers were injured.
The penalty imposed on the truck driver is the maximum penalty within the jurisdiction of a magistrate's court along with 20 years of disqualification and it should be noted that the maximum penalty for the offense of causing death by negligence is 3 years in prison.
The most important figure from the sentence is that Hanam holds a driver's license from 1978 and has no less than 108 previous convictions.
But are the traffic courts stricter or lenient and is this a rare case or is this the usual norm for punishment in the traffic courts?
In yesterday's decision, the court stated that this is one accident which constitutes one act that includes eight separate incidents of causing death by negligence and due to the principle of the sanctity of life of each and every person, the court decided to order the accumulation of the penalties not numerically but taking into account the principle of proportionality and maintaining an adequate relationship between The severity of the acts and the degree of guilt of the driver.
The funerals of the girls killed in February 2015 (photo: Walla! NEWS system, Yanir Yagana)
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the last year, 67 convictions and sentences were given by the traffic courts for the offenses of causing death by negligence, according to Walla!'s investigation.
The results of the search revealed that on average, the courts sentence 10-11 months in prison to drivers convicted of the crimes of causing death by negligence, with some of them being converted to service jobs.
For example, last May the traffic court in the Tel Aviv district sentenced a bus driver who drove above the speed limit to nine months in prison, commuted to service work, and as a result hit a motorcyclist who flew off the vehicle as a result of the impact and was killed.
Despite the facts that were detailed and despite the fact that the father of the deceased stated to the court about their difficulties and even pointed out the fact that since the accident his wife hardly ever leaves the house and even had a heart attack called the "broken heart syndrome", the court sentenced the accused to community service and not actual imprisonment even though the prosecutor's office did requested that he be sentenced to prison in practice.
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"The Supreme Court in repeated rulings has ordered that the punishment for the offenses of causing death by negligence be made worse," said Judge Aryeh Zarzevski in sentencing.
"Nevertheless, there are judgments that made it easy for defendants and imposed a punishment that includes serving a prison term in the form of community service due to a traffic record that is not burdensome or due to special circumstances that justified it."
The judge lightened that driver's sentence also due to his age and his actions: "The 28-year-old defendant, studying civil engineering and construction at Sakhnin National College, received a certificate of excellence for his work at the company "Kim". The defendant expressed regret for the accident. I do not find that the public interest in this case is to The accused should be imprisoned behind bars. From the perspective of the deceased's family, there is no punishment that will ease their pain over the loss of their loved one in an unnecessary accident."
On the other hand, in another case from last June, a 63-year-old man was sentenced to 15 months in prison after the shuttle he was driving went to the curb in the Hispin area, swerved, lost control, moved into the opposite lane while crossing a continuous dividing line and overturned.
Two of the occupants of the shuttle were killed.
The driver has no criminal record, suffers from medical, mental and physical problems, but he was still sentenced to prison and this is how the judge explained: "He holds a license from 1977 and has 36 previous convictions. Among other things, he was convicted of speeding offenses, disobeying a stop sign, causing two traffic accidents and deviating from a lane transportation".
Another case where it can be seen that the courts mitigate the punishment is a case where the offending driver was himself injured in an accident despite his negligence.
For example, in a sentence from last June that dealt with a truck driver who drove negligently and collided with another truck driver who was killed as a result.
But the offending driver injured himself and in the end he was sentenced to nine months in prison, which was converted into service work.
"The decision in this unique case is an exception to the rule of practice, and is unique to this specific case in which data was collected that justified punishment in the lower part of the complex, alongside an unequivocal recommendation by the probation service for a rehabilitative punishment due to the defendant's severe disability (physical and mental) caused to him in an accident which he himself caused Judge Alon Ofir reasoned in sentencing.
The one who confirms this is attorney Eitan Stoler from the Stoler & Co. office, who specializes in traffic law, who explains when the courts will be stricter and when they will lighten the punishment: "In accidents where there are a number of fatalities and high negligence on the part of the offending driver is involved, we will see stricter punishment, so much so that The court will be able to decide that it is ruling on "accumulation of punishment", meaning punishing each injury separately and not seeing it as one single case, and then the punishment will be significantly more severe."
"In yesterday's sentence, the judge set a high level of negligence and this allowed her to rule on the accumulation of punishment," says Attorney Stoler and adds: "In addition, considerations for mitigating the punishment are the expression of remorse and consideration of the defendant's rehabilitation alongside unusual personal reasons of the defendant together with contributory negligence On the part of the victims of the accident.
In yesterday's case, the accused did not even express remorse."
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