NGO presents data showing 6% rise in road deaths since last year; CEO slams gov't for budget cuts.
By JPOST.COM STAFFcar accident 224 88 aj(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
A total of 29,997 people have been killed in road accidents in Israel since 1948, according to data published Wednesday by the Or Yarok traffic safety organization.
At a press conference organized by the NGO, it was announced that there were 282 fatalities on the road from the beginning of 2008 - a six-percent rise compared to the same period last year.
In response to the data, Or Yarok Director-General Shmuel Abuav lamented the fact that only a fifth of the recommendations from a 2004 committee to improve the situation had been implemented.
"It's not possible that, in this forlorn situation, the country's answer is to cut two million shekels from the budget," said Abuav.
"This is a government that sees the figures, sees the death and suffering, and yet votes for budget cuts and the canceling of a program which was meant to reduce the number of deaths on the road," he went on.
On Wednesday, 15 people, including 11 single-parent mothers from the North who were part of a group trip, were lightly to moderately injured in a traffic accident in the Golan Heights.
Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the injured to a hospital in Safed.
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