The Or Yarok (Green Light) road-safety organization has responded to Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz's announcement that he will sever ties because "it has become political," as he put it by saying, "We are sorry that the minister in charge of road safety has chosen not to attend our annual conference and not to explain how the state of Israel has recorded five consecutive years of an increase in the number of fatalities under his tenure."
Between 2009, when Katz took over the ministry and 2012, road deaths finished ten years of decline with less than 300 in 2012. Since then, traffic fatalies have increased, approaching 400 in 2016.