Smoking in J’lem bus terminal may cost Egged NIS 100m.

Plaintiff noted he saw even Egged drivers with lit cigarettes, in violation of the law.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
The Egged bus coop faces a NIS 100 million class action suit for failing to prevent smoking in its Jerusalem central bus station enclosed terminal, which is visited every weekday by 30,000 people – an estimated 20,000 of them nonsmokers.
The request to the Jerusalem District Court to certify it as a class action suit was filed on Monday by lawyer Amos Hausner, who is also chairman of the National Council for the Prevention of Smoking. Hausner received a complaint from Rehovot resident Eyal Valner, who recorded his conversations with Egged staffers during one of his visits to the bus terminal.
The plaintiff noted that the air in the terminal was full of smoke, and that he saw even Egged drivers there with lit cigarettes in violation of the law. Egged has also broken the law by failing to post ‘no-smoking’ signs in the terminal.
The plaintiff said he asked Egged employees to stop the smoking, butall of them claimed the company was “not responsible” for enforcing thelaw, which in fact puts the onus for enforcement on the occupiers ofpublic premises. Instead, he was advised to call the JerusalemMunicipality, which they claimed “was responsible for enforcement.”
Calculating a fine of NIS 1,000 for each of the non-smokers using thehuge terminal since the relevant law came into effect, Hausner askedthe court for recognition of the complaint as a class action suit ontheir behalf.