A four-year-old boy died of heat stroke in Modiin Illit Thursday after he was forgotten inside a car. A teacher at a boys' religious school volunteered to take his neighbors' boy to school. The boy fell asleep on the way and the teacher forgot that the boy was in his car when he got out of it.
When he came back to the car in the early afternoon, the teacher discovered the boy's lifeless body in the car.
MK Yaakov Katz (National Union) said following the tragedy that Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz (Likud) and his aides are to blame for the boy's death. "The death of the 4.5-year-old boy from Modiin Illit who was broiled to death in a car today would have been prevented if the Minister of Transport had fulfilled his promise to us to approve the bill that would make it mandatory to equip cars with a sensor to alert drivers when a child is left behind."
"Whenever I enter my car, and it is sizzling hot because of the sun, I imagine to myself what a child left behind to suffocate to death in a car must feel," said MK Katz. "Even though we brought the bill to the plenum 2.5 years ago, and we have met and spoken to the minister and his staff countless times, nothing has been done!"
"We warned that dozens of additional children will be forgotten in cars and some of them will, G-d forbid, suffocate to death! Since then several children have met this horrible death. I blame the Transport Minister!"
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation decided not to support the bill, but the Knesset decided nonetheless to bring it to the Finance Committee and to seek coordination with the Transport Ministry. MK Katz will bring the bill up for a vote again in the next session of the Knesset.