Radio stations, the media, police, the IDF and other agencies are all combining efforts this week to raise public awareness about the dangers of injuries and fatalities related to road accidents.
Though the number of fatalities dropped more than 13% in 2003 (to 486, from 548 the year before), the rate this year is up sharply. Close to 250 people have been killed on the roads so far in 2004. Statistics also show an alarming increase in the number of fatal accidents involving young drivers; 45 drivers under 25 were killed this year. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon announced on Army Radio yesterday that 23 soldiers were killed on and off duty in 2003 in motor vehicle accidents.
Shlomo Yosefberg, ex-chairman of the Drivers' Teachers Council and presently the director of a center providing services for driving teachers and students, recently told Arutz-7 that the main problem, as he sees it, is "one of education... There must be a basic education for patience, tolerance, responsibility, courtesy, caution, self-discipline, etc."
A new study, however, shows that much of the blame must also be apportioned to bad road infrastructures. A study carried out in the Technion - The Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa - shows that 50% of the accidents that occurred in northern Israel between 1996 and 2001 could possibly have been avoided had the roads been built and paved according to international standards. Conditions have improved significantly since 2001.
Though the number of fatalities dropped more than 13% in 2003 (to 486, from 548 the year before), the rate this year is up sharply. Close to 250 people have been killed on the roads so far in 2004. Statistics also show an alarming increase in the number of fatal accidents involving young drivers; 45 drivers under 25 were killed this year. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon announced on Army Radio yesterday that 23 soldiers were killed on and off duty in 2003 in motor vehicle accidents.
Shlomo Yosefberg, ex-chairman of the Drivers' Teachers Council and presently the director of a center providing services for driving teachers and students, recently told Arutz-7 that the main problem, as he sees it, is "one of education... There must be a basic education for patience, tolerance, responsibility, courtesy, caution, self-discipline, etc."
A new study, however, shows that much of the blame must also be apportioned to bad road infrastructures. A study carried out in the Technion - The Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa - shows that 50% of the accidents that occurred in northern Israel between 1996 and 2001 could possibly have been avoided had the roads been built and paved according to international standards. Conditions have improved significantly since 2001.