The budget for the National Traffic Safety Authority will remain 550 million shekels ($131 million), Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced at today's weekly Cabinet meeting. The cut of 150 million shekels that had been announced earlier is now officially revoked.
"What we have all experienced in this past week," Olmert said, "evokes great sorrow and participation in the sorrow of the families... Even if the number of accidents has not risen, the number of fatalities has increased significantly, and this is something that must worry us."
Nine people were killed in three car crashes this past week, bringing the week's death toll to 14. Among the dead were two children visiting Israel from France, six Israeli-Arabs, and four immigrants from the former Soviet Union - a husband, wife, son and nephew.
The total for the not-yet ended month of August is 40 - significantly higher than average. Last year at this time, the average monthly total of traffic fatalities was approximately 33.