Police: 40 People Killed in Road Accidents in October

Forty people were killed on Israel’s roads in October, police announced Tuesday – while urging Israelis to pay attention to the messages of Road Safety Day, which will be commemorated Thursday. Between January and September 2018, 213 people have been killed in road accidents, and 1,419 people were badly injured in accidents. Altogether, there were 16,679 injuries in the 9,008 road accidents reported during the period. Since the establishment of the state, over 33,000 people have been killed in road accidents.

Twelve percent of those injured in road accidents were age 14 or under, while that age group constituted 7 percent of those killed. Arabs are far more likely to be killed in road accidents; while they account for 20.9 percent of the population of Israel, 32.7 percent of those killed in and 31.8 percent of those injured in accidents were Arabs.

Being a pedestrian is especially dangerous; one third of those killed in road accidents in 2017 were not in a vehicle at all.

Part of the reason for road accidents, police said in the report, was the increased crowding of Israeli roads. Israelis are driving 63-percent more kilometers today than they did in 2000, and the number of vehicles has nearly doubled in that time. However, the land dedicated to roads has grown just 45 percent.

Police urged Israelis to attend the road safety events taking place around the country in advance of Road Safety Day. The events are taking place in community centers as well as in schools. Classes on road safety for pedestrians, drivers and bike riders will be offered, and schools will conduct memorial services in honor of those killed in accidents.