Following accident that killed 8 family members, c'tee asks Transportation Ministry to check effectiveness of auto inspections.
By LAHAV HARKOVScene of deadly car accident near Tiberias 370(photo credit: Courtesy of MDA / Danny Eliyahu)
The Transportation Ministry must check the effectiveness of auto inspections, Knesset Economics Subcommittee to Fight Road Accidents chairman Hamed Amer (Yisrael Beytenu) said on Tuesday, following an accident near Tiberias in which a family of eight was killed.“We don’t want an entire family to die just because their car was not properly inspected,” Amer said at a meeting on road safety.Amer instructed the Transportation Ministry’s chief scientist Dr. Amir Ziv-Av to investigate why the car’s brakes failed, only three months after they passed inspection.Ziv-Av gave an overview of possible inexpensive short-term improvements to road safety, such as lowering speed limits within cities to 20-30 km/h, clearly marking crosswalks and trimming plants that block road signs.He also said the amount of road accidents per capita in Israel is close to the average for the OECD, but that reducing speed limits by 10 percent could save dozens of lives each year.In addition, Ziv-Av called for the Transportation Ministry to publicize the dangers of riding motorcycles, saying that only 25% of motorcyclists under age 24 were not in road accidents.“Dozens of lives can be saved each year by raising awareness,” he said.Amer asked Ziv-Av to prepare a report on ways these steps can be taken.In a subsequent meeting, the subcommittee chairman discussed road safety near schools, asking that the Road Safety Authority and Transportation and Education Ministries study the streets surrounding every school in Israel, point out problems and suggest solutions.The Road Safety Authority and Transportation Ministry agreed to Amer’s request and said it is already working on making roads near schools safer.
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