Traffic (illustrative)
Traffic (illustrative)Flash90

Starting from tomorrow, penalties for serious driving offenses will become more severe.

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, who signed off on the new orders, said that making traffic penalties more severe and imposing penalties in situations which, up until now, only entailed a court hearing will increase deterrence and allow for quick administering of punishment, close to the time of the actual offense.

The penalty for ignoring a red light will be raised from 1,000 shekels to 1, 500 shekels. The penalty for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk or not on the right side of the road will be raised from 100 to 250 shekels, while the penalty for an underage person riding an electric bicycle or for riding a deficient bicycle will be 1,000 shekels, instead of the court hearing imposed today.

A driver caught traveling above the designated speed limit within city confines and between cities will be penalized 1,500 shekels instead of a court hearing. For not giving the right of way to a pedestrian intending to cross the street or to another car which has the right of way, the penalty will be 250 shekels instead of a court hearing.

Driving a car without a valid license will result in a 1,000 shekel fine, instead of the 750 shekels imposed today.

On the other hand, the punishment for transferring a surplus weight of 15-25 percent, which now sees a 1,000 shekel penalty, was converted to a court hearing.

The Transportation Minister emphasized that the new, more stringent punishments for serious offenses is part of the efforts of his office to minimize deaths caused by traffic accidents. These efforts include unprecedented investments of billions of shekels in the paving of new and safer roads, the establishment of bypass roads, and the development of security infrastructure.