In time for this year's summer vacation, the Municipality of
Bnei Brak has launched an extensive informative campaign on
the topic of road safety. The campaign, first of its kind in
the chareidi sector, will be conducted in a chareidi spirit.
The campaign will be in effect throughout the entire summer
and peak toward its end.
Secretary and spokesman of the Municipality, Avrohom
Tannenbaum, related that the Subdivision for Road Safety in
the Infrastructure and Development Wing of the Municipal
Traffic Department has launched this campaign in an attempt
to effect a significant cut in the number of traffic
accidents in the city. In former years, the incidence of
traffic accidents involving pedestrians was exceptionally
high in Bnei Brak. However, this rate has begun to decrease
during the current year.
The campaign was prepared and is being administered in
conjunction with the Gal ad agency, DSB, which has taken an
active part in its implementation and has recruited the
assistance of a number of companies which have completely
covered the cost of the campaign. These companies are: Glatt
Market, Cellcom, Prigat (Pri-Etz) and Badi of Tenuva
Mehadrin.
One focus of the campaign will be educating drivers on the
importance of reducing their speed, especially during the
summer vacation, and on drilling pedestrians to "stop, look
and then cross."
At the opening of the campaign by the mayor, Rabbi Mordechai
Karelitz, a detailed pamphlet was distributed in the city's
schools. The pamphlet includes the mayor's appeal to students
to observe the rules of traffic safety in order to guarantee
pleasant summer vacations for themselves and their parents.
It also contains a description of the campaign as well as
important road safety rules, a quiz, and a puzzle.
At the national level, Shaul Yahalom, the outgoing
Transportation Minister recently reported: "The rate of
traffic accidents has significantly decreased in the past six
months. Deaths due to traffic accidents decreased by 22%
during the last half-year in comparison with the
corresponding period last year." Yahalom made these
statements in the Knesset plenum, in response to a series of
proposals concerning possible solutions to the problem of
traffic accidents.
Yahalom said that every driver must be told that the scourge
of traffic accidents is not an unsolvable problem. "If we
have lowered the number of deaths by 22 percent, then
progress is indeed possible," Yahalom said. "We must continue
in this effort. But it costs money, since it is linked to the
building of the infrastructure, law enforcement, police,
counselling, educational campaigns and a number of other
interrelated factors. If we make the required investments,
there is hope that we can continue to lower the number of
deaths, and in that manner to wage a successful battle
against this terrible calamity."
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni added, "When the value of human life is
lowered, youth spend their time at nightclubs and kill each
other. Parents send their child to school, yet aren't certain
that he will return in one piece. Some drivers place little
value on human life and they don't care if they kill. When
people don't regard human life as sacred, more heedless
killings occur -- more accidents. In order to grapple with
this, we much approach the problem at the educational
level."
Rabbi Gafni stressed that the issue is raised in nearly every
Knesset, and the problem is constantly on the agenda.
Nonetheless, the problem has yet to be solved. "An irrational
trend exists. The situation is already worse than war. Yet
solutions to the traffic accident problem have yet to be
found," he said.
Rabbi Gafni cited a number of factors leading to accidents,
such as, "an infrastructure which is not up to par in an age
when many vehicles crowd the roads, cars which fail to meet
standards, exhausted drivers -- especially truck and bus
drivers who work in shifts in order to earn more money and in
whose hands vehicles become weapons which destroy
families."
