The State Comptroller published today special reports to the public on the subject of road safety and on the subject of the management of the COVID-19 crisis at the national level by the 35th and 36th governments
State Comptroller, Matanyahu Englman, on road safety:
"Israeli roads are a ticking time bomb. Since the establishment of the State, approximately 33 thousand people have been killed in road traffic accidents. Behind every fatality and every casualty there is a family whose lives have been ruined. Apart from this, the financial cost of road accidents totals approximately NIS 16 billion per annum.
Over the years, the Israeli governments have failed in the fight against road traffic accidents: The rate of road accidents in Israel has increased during the last decade while being on a downward trend in leading countries in Europe, the budgets of the National Road Safety Authority have been cut, many job standards in the Traffic Police have not been filled and the government is not meeting its goals in this area.
Road traffic accidents are not decreed by fate. Dealing with the matter must stand at the top of the list of priorities of the Minister of Transport and the entire government. The government must adopt the goal of zero fatalities in road traffic accidents, which is normal practice in leading countries in Europe".
State Comptroller, Matanyahu Englman, on the management of the COVID-19 crisis:
"Prime Minister Netanyahu made a strategic decision resulting in the grant of exclusivity to the Pfizer company for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines until the end of March 2021. He agreed upon this over the telephone with the company's CEO, but the COVID-19 Cabinet, the body authorized by the government to manage the handling of the crisis, was not updated about the strategic course of action.
Alongside the benefits to the State of Israel, this is a decision which at such time involved risks to public health, even if these were calculated risks.
This is not a regular or insignificant decision which should be made by one party, without the government granting them authorization. The concern of an unwanted leak cannot justify the way in which the decision was made. On the contrary – the defective culture of leaks from senior forums must be dealt with, and a small and authorized forum must be appointed in order to allow rapid, effective and optimal decision-making while strictly preserving confidentiality. All the more so is this true at this time, during the Swords of Iron War.
Neither was the COVID-19 Cabinet in the government of the former Prime Minister Bennett updated in two significant decisions that were made: A plan at a cost of NIS 170 million for managing the COVID-19 routine and lessons learned from the ability of government ministries to deal with the fifth wave scenarios".
During the past decade, Israeli governments have not succeeded in reducing the number of fatalities and casualties in road traffic accidents. While in 27 European countries the number of fatalities has decreased by 22% – in Israel it has increased by 16% from 2012 to 2022. The cost of the accidents to the economy: NIS 16 billion per annum.
The fight against road traffic accidents is a national mission in all countries worldwide. Since the establishment of the State up to the end of 2023, approximately 33 thousand people have been killed in road traffic accidents, 358 of them in 2023. Beyond the bereavement and the sorrow, road traffic accidents have a high financial cost, which has been estimated at approximately NIS 16 billion per annum (in 2019).
The importance of the matter and its presence in the daily discourse have led over the years the government to form committees and make various government decisions designed to promote road safety. The formation of the National Road Safety Authority in 2007 as a body intended to oversee the fight against road traffic accidents was a major course of action adopted by the government.
However, the data show that the various actions taken by the government during the past decade have not been successful in having an outstanding effect on the scope of the phenomenon and have not been successful in reducing the number of fatalities and casualties in road traffic accidents. The handling of the matters concerning road safety is scattered, and is within the fields of responsibility of many government bodies, the main ones being the Ministry of Transport, the National Road Safety Authority, the Israel Police Traffic Department, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Courts Administration and the local authorities. The success in the fight against road traffic accidents demands the existence of a leading authorized body, the determination of a budgeted strategic plan containing clear and measurable goals, the independent activity of each of the relevant bodies and their joint and coordinated activity, and above all – the commitment of the Prime Minister and of all the government ministers. Many countries worldwide are not prepared to come to terms with the loss involved in road traffic accidents, the suffering, the bereavement and the financial costs, and so they have set a goal of zero fatalities in road traffic accidents. No similar goal has been set in Israel.
The international experience of the countries that have succeeded in reducing the number of casualties in road traffic accidents shows that this is not a decree of fate but a fight that can be won and that human lives can be saved. The Minister of Transport must place the matter at the top of the list of priorities and rectify all the defects that arose in the report.
The importance of the issue and the lack of a clear trend of improvement during the past decade have led the Office of the State Comptroller to follow up on the matter and examine it in a great number of audit reports which have been published. This report comprehensively deals with the government's actions in the matter of road safety over the past decade.
The situation regarding road safety, information collection and processing
Israel is in the penultimate place out of 27 countries in the rate of change in the number of fatalities in road traffic accident from 2012 to 2022. 15-24-year-olds and those aged over 65 are prone to severe injuries. Arab drivers are involved in accidents more than Jewish drivers. The information that the police collects about accidents – is partial.
In comparison to the rate of change in the number of fatalities in road traffic accident from 2012 to 2022, Israel is in the penultimate place out of 27 countries. During these years, the number of fatalities in Israel increased by approximately 16%, while the average for the 27 European Union countries examined is a decrease of 22%.
In terms of the ratio of fatalities per billion kilometers mileage, Israel is in the 15th place out of 25 countries, with an average of 5.6 fatalities from 2020 to 2022, slightly below the average for the European Union countries examined, which totals 6.
Compared with change in the number of serious injuries from 2012 to 2022, Israel is ranked in the penultimate place out of 29 countries. In Israel, the number of seriously injured people increased by approximately 21%, while in most of the countries there was a decrease in this index, and the average of the European Union countries examined showed a decrease of 18%.
The State Comptroller found that the numbers of fatalities and seriously injured people in Israel fluctuated during the past decade, and no significant trend of improvement is noticeable; this is following a general trend of a clear decrease in the number of fatalities and seriously injured people from 2005 to 2012. The data illustrate that no appropriate response has been provided for the complex problem of road traffic accidents, and that the treatment provided by the State during the past decade has not yielded any positive results in the fight against road traffic accidents, contrary to the trends that occurred in many European countries during such period, countries that, contrary to Israel, had determined a goal of zero fatalities.
In 2022, 351 people were killed in 319 fatal accidents, compared with an average of 341 people killed in 304 fatal accidents from 2019 to 2021. The data indicate an increase of approximately 3% in the number of fatalities and of approximately 5% in the number of fatal accidents. Approximately 64% of the fatalities were killed in accidents in the interurban space, and approximately 36% in the urban space, even though less than one-third of the accidents occurred on non-urban roads. Out of the 351 killed in road traffic accidents in 2022, 28% were private vehicle users, 31% pedestrians and 22% motorbike and scooter riders. Since 2018 an upward trend is noticeable in severe injuries and fatalities among motorbike riders: According to the National Road Safety Authority, from 2013 to 2019 the exposure to motorbike accidents increased following the increase in the number of licensed riders, in the inclusive mileage and the number of heavy motorbikes among all the motorbikes.
The age groups that are prone to serious injuries relative to their share of the population are young people aged 15 to 24 and those aged 65 and over. The rate of fatalities and seriously injured people in road traffic accidents aged 65 and over was higher than the share of this group in the population throughout the entire period from 2013 to 2022. On an annual average, the rate of fatalities and seriously injured people aged 65 and over out of all the fatalities was approximately 20%, compared with their share of the population – approximately 11.5%.
Relative to their share in the population, from 2013 to 2019 male Arab drivers were involved in more accidents than Jewish male drivers, in all age groups, but the difference is prominent mainly at the young age groups.
The Comptroller found that the information that the police collects about road traffic accidents is partial, and it focuses mainly on serious and fatal accidents. The police does not collect all the data about minor accidents, about accidents causing property damages only and accidents where only non-motorized vehicles were involved (in 2022 there were approximately 2,550 severe and fatal accidents, and every year there are approximately 45,000 minor accidents that are not investigated). One of the reasons for the partial information collection is the under-manning of the traffic inspectors at the police, whose role is to investigate road traffic accidents: At the end of 2023 a gap of 86 traffic inspectors was anticipated – approximately 35% of the job standards.
Nearly 100% of the accidents investigated by the police are classified as accidents for which the human factor is responsible, and sometimes the investigation does not delve into the root of the reason leading to the accident. Likewise, the police does not use advanced systems for documenting the scene of the accident, such as designated cameras via which the event scene can be photographed from different directions before the scene of the accident is cleared.
The Comptroller found that since 1996, no national driving habits survey has been conducted by the Ministry of Transport. Such a survey is necessary, among other reasons, in order to measure the number of accidents relative to the use of each of the means of transport and in order to assist in the enforcement of the traffic laws. This is contrary to the standard practice in European countries, where such a survey is conducted every year or every few years.
The Ministers of Transport have not exercised their power to form investigation and examination committees for road traffic accidents and they have not enacted regulations in the matter. In practice, the National Road Safety Authority has over the years formed committees to investigate road traffic accidents. Since 2010 and up to the date the audit was completed, only 12 in-depth investigations have been published (the same number of committees that were formed), and in some years they were not published at all.
Leading the fight against road traffic accidents
Since 2005, the government has not approved and budgeted a multi-year strategic plan for the fight against road traffic accidents. The National Road Safety Authority is still not fulfilling its mission to lead this fight, and its abilities have been harmed by the considerable drop in its budgets since its formation: From approximately NIS 382 million in 2008 to approximately NIS 141 million in 2022.
Under the Government Decision from 2005, the National Road Safety Authority was due to supervise the activity of the fight against road traffic accidents. As far back as 2016 the Office of the State Comptroller warned that the National Road Safety Authority did not have sufficient powers, and it had not become a leading party in the fight against accidents, as it should have. The present audit found that many powers are scattered among the various government bodies, the main ones being the National Road Safety Authority, the Ministry of Transport, the Israel Police and the Ministry of Education. These bodies are acting without any systemic vision and without sufficient coordination and cooperation between them. The National Road Safety Authority's powers have remained the same, and it still does not act as the body leading the fight.
The audit found that since 2005 the Ministers of Transport had not delivered the government and the Knesset Finance Committee any reporting regarding the implementation of the yearly plan by the National Road Safety Authority, as required by law, and that the Prime Minister is not reporting this to the Knesset.
Despite the importance of the multi-year strategic plans, and despite the successful international experience in adopting them, since the 2005 National Plan, the fight against road traffic accidents in Israel is being managed without a multi-year strategic plan that has been approved and budgeted by the government. The 2005 National Plan set goals for the State of Israel until 2015, yet some of its parts have not been implemented until this day (such as granting powers and independence to the National Road Safety Authority and the presence of 450 Traffic Police patrol cars on the roads), and its goals have not been achieved (a decrease in the number of fatalities to under 300 fatalities a year until 2015). Since then no inclusive strategic plan for the fight against road traffic accidents has been approved and budgeted by the government. The actual number of fatalities and casualties during the past decade (an increase from 290 fatalities in 2012 to 351 in 2022) bears witness that the various actions taken within the framework of the fight, in the absence of a strategic plan, are not, at the end of the day, achieving the desired results.
In 2021, the Ministry of Transport and the National Road Safety Authority prepared a national plan for road safety (the "50 to 30" plan), within the framework of which a goal was set for reducing the severe injuries in road traffic accidents in Israel by one-half by 2030, compared with the 2019 data. The plan noted that it would lead to a considerable financial saving for the economy, in a scope of approximately NIS 95 billion, by the year 2040. However, even though the plan was prepared in accordance with the Government Decision for it to constitute a multi-year plan for the promotion and reinforcement of road safety, and even though many resources were invested in its preparation and it contains a long list of missions for execution, it did not contain any cost estimates and budgetary sources for activity. In 2022, the government resolved to adopt the main points of the multi-year national plan for reinforcing road safety for the years 2022 - 2027, which is the fruit of an additional processing of the 30 to 50 plan. Nevertheless, as a pilot, during the first stage of the implementation of the plan, a cluster of local authorities was selected where the plan's recommendations would be promoted, and a budget of just NIS 80 million was allotted for this.
