Background
Road accidents are one of the leading causes of death in Israel; therefore, the fight against them is a national mission. Since the establishment of the State of Israel (1948) until the end of 2022, 32,632 people have been killed in road accidents, 351 of them in 2022 alone. In addition to the fatalities, the accidents resulted in hundreds of thousands of injuries and significant economic damage to the country. Over the years, successive Israeli governments have made numerous decisions preventing road accidents. In addition, public and parliamentary committees have been established, including the Public Committee for the Preparation of a Multi-Year National Road Safety Program headed by Dr. Jacob Sheinin (the Sheinin Committee). Following the committee's report in 2005 (the 2005 National Program or the Sheinin Committee recommendations), the National Road Safety Authority Law (Temporary Provision), 2006 (the RSA Law) was enacted. In this law, the Minister of Transportation was defined as the "Minister of Transportation and Road Safety," (MOT) and the National Road Safety Authority (RSA) was established under its provisions, which began operations in 2008.
It is customary to divide the leading causes of road accidents into three categories: (a) Human Factors – this includes failures in driver training, human errors, negligence, noncompliance with traffic laws, dangerous driving, and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. In this category, adequate enforcement and deterrent punishment can reduce the number of accidents; (b) Infrastructure Factors – including poor planning, failure to treat hazardous areas, narrow road shoulders, low road maintenance levels, and the lack of rest stops; (c) Vehicle Factors – this includes "blind spots," lack of technological systems to prevent accidents, and low maintenance levels of vehicles.
The multitude of factors influencing the prevalence of road accidents makes fighting them a complex process. The responsibility for addressing road safety lies with several government bodies, including the MOT, the RSA, the Traffic Division of the Israel Police, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Courts Administration, and the local authorities.
Although road accidents have been on the public agenda for many years, the various government actions over the past decade have not had a significant impact and have not reduced the number of fatalities and injuries from road accidents. The importance of this issue and the lack of an apparent improvement over the last decade have led the State Comptroller's Office to monitor and examine this in numerous audit reports. This report comprehensively reviews government actions regarding road safety over the past decade.