Two killed in car accidents in North

By DAVID RUDGE
Two people were killed and at least one other person was injured in crashes on roads in the North over the past few days, police reported on Sunday. A 44-year-old resident of Kiryat Yam near Haifa was killed when his car crashed into an electricity pole on the coastal highway near Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael early Sunday morning. Police said that no other vehicles were involved and that the cause of the crash was being investigated. It was not known if the driver, who was killed, had been wearing a seat belt. A 27-year-old woman from Even Yehuda died in Haifa's Rambam Hospital on Sunday of injuries she suffered in a separate accident in the North on Saturday. The woman was a passenger on a motorcycle that was hit by a car near Moshav Bat Shlomo. She was critically injured and the motorcyclist was badly hurt in the crash. Police said it appeared that a truck parked on the side of the road had blocked the view of a car travelling in the same direction and the driver struck the motorcycle from behind. The car driver was detained for questioning. The latest deaths brought to 436 the number of people killed in the ongoing carnage on the roads since the beginning of January, compared to 476 over the same period last year. "Despite the fact that the number of fatalities has dropped by 40 compared to last year, we are very concerned about what is still happening on the roads throughout the country," Supt. Doron Ben-Amo, spokesman for the Traffic Division told The Jerusalem Post. "Every person who is killed or injured has family and friends and they are each and every one a world of their own." Ben-Amo revealed that despite the overall drop in fatalities, there had been a marked increase in the number of people killed in crashes involving bicycles and motorcycles. "There has been a rise of more than 20 percent in the number of fatalities involving people on two-wheeled vehicles and this is extremely disturbing," said Ben-Amo. Traffic Division Chief Cmdr. Shahar Ayalon has ordered intensified operations nationwide to crack down on bad drivers, speeders including those on two wheels, motorists driving under the influence of alcohol and to detect unroadworthy vehicles.