The main cause of traffic accidents in Israel is (a lack of) driving culture. Does our Jewish culture present guidelines to change the way we drive?
The shock of my son’s severe injury in a traffic accident in Israel last year and the family enlistment to care for him overshadowed everything else. The State of Israel took care of his medical and rehabilitation needs and expenses in a most effective manner. Slowly but surely, though, a strange fact seeped into my consciousness: The leading actor was missing from this entire horror film. Where was the offending driver who had injured my son? It seemed that it wasn’t an autonomous person who had driven recklessly and caused his injury, but rather the statistics that had maimed him; some sort of heavenly force.
But then again, we have been receiving all the technical assistance that we need. So why should I care?
“What do you prefer?” I began to ask everyone I met. “To drive over the speed limit or to drive without insurance?” We all know the answer to that question. For the Israeli driver, his insurance is more important than his obedience to traffic law. And so, under the protection of the Mandatory Insurance Law, Israel has developed a lethal driving culture.
The current issue of Tomorrow Magazine deals with the source of the MVA scourge. On the basis of the Jewish legal principle of an ‘unintentional killer’ that states that a person is responsible for the results of his actions and not just for his intentions, we will show how Israel can maintain the full level of excellent care that it affords traffic accident victims, while placing the entire responsibility for the results of the accident firmly on the shoulders of the offending driver. This will doubtlessly create a new driving culture in Israel.
We believe that the adoption of this principle will save a significant proportion of the annual hundreds of MVA fatalities and injured from their terrible fate.
Will we have the courage to take responsibility and emerge from the death trap on our roads into freedom? It all depends on us!
2 comments:
Good work, keep it up! Traffic Driver
This has been an everlong problem in Israel since I can remember. You bring up a very good point that I wish and pray Israel will take a look at and change.
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