The Or Yarok (Green Light) Traffic Safety Association asked motorists to pause for a moment on Tuesday night – 60 seconds, to be exact – to protest the rising number of traffic deaths on Israel's roads.
The Minute for Safety, slated for 7:30 p.m., was meant to raise awareness among motorists as well as passengers and pedestrians about the increasingly dangerous driving conditions on the nation's highways.
Green Light, founded in 1997 to "wage an uncompromising struggle against traffic accidents and emphasize the importance of community involvement in the struggle," is also scheduled to hold a solidarity event with victims of traffic accidents.
Due to the overwhelming number of traffic victims, the ministry has begun to offer a pilot program aimed at teaching social workers how to treat victims of traffic accidents and their families. Social workers are frequently the front-line professionals who are assigned the task of notifying the next-of-kin when someone has been killed in a car accident.
More than 30,000 people have died in traffic accidents since the State of Israel was established in 1948. Since the beginning of 2008, 13 children under the age of 4 have been killed in car accidents; 11 of those were from the Arab sector.
Despite the grim statistics, the Finance Ministry decided earlier this month to cut $55.7 million from the National Road Safety Authority's budget, in addition to $27.8 million from the Transportation Ministry's development budget. The cuts were made despite a previous commitment to increase funding for traffic safety in 2009.
According to data published 10 days ago by the Social Services and Welfare Ministry, 373 people were killed in traffic accidents so far this year.