Israel’s Traffic Safety Council, is urging new legislation that would require new drivers to be escorted by an experienced motorist for three months as part of an intensified battle in the war against death on the highways.

Israel’s fatality rate has dropped 20 percent this year compared with 2008, but the country still is among those with the highest number of pedestrian accidents and highest number of young people wounded on the roads. More Israelis have died in traffic accidents than in wars since the re-establishment of the State.