A total of 359 Israelis were killed in road accidents in 2021, a 20% increase over 2020 and the highest death toll in the past decade, a survey published by the Or Yarok (Green Ligh) organization on Thursday shows.
In 2020, 298 Israelis were killed on the roads, as opposed to the 359 killed since the beginning of 2021, numbers Or Yarok says are “a large and unusual gap in deaths compared to previous years.”
For comparison, the increase in fatalities in 2021 compared to 2020 is equivalent to the increase in fatalities between 2013-2016, meaning that the increase in the past year was similar to the increase over four consecutive years.
The Or Yarok Association for Safer Driving in Israel is a traffic safety lobbyist organization dedicated to reducing road accidents in Israel through education, enforcement and improvement of infrastructure.
Raz Kita, CEO of the Or Yarok Association, stated that “every day a person is killed in a car accident. Every day another family joins the bereaved family. Whole families falling apart because of the carnage on the roads.”
“The year 2021 is one of the deadliest and bloodiest in the last decade and is the result of many years of neglect. We have already come to know that when the government invests the required budgets the number of deaths decreases significantly and grief and pain are spared from many families,” he noted.
He called on the government to “change its priorities, return the funding taken in recent years to return Israel to a positive trend, which saves more and more people from unnecessary death on the road every year.”
Segmentation of road accident fatalities in 2021 shows a sharp increase in fatalities among motorcyclists, young drivers and fatalities from heavy vehicle accidents.
96 pedestrians were killed in road accidents in 2021 compared to 81 pedestrians killed in 2020, an increase of 19%.
27 children up to the age of 14 were killed in 2021 in road accidents, compared to 25 children killed in 2020.
73 senior citizens over the age of 65 were killed in 2021 in road accidents, compared to 70 senior citizens killed in road accidents in 2020.
83 motorcyclists and scooter riders were killed in road accidents in 2021, compared to 66 motorcyclists and scooter riders killed by the same date last year, a 26% increase.
57 young drivers were killed in road accidents in 2021, compared to 43 young drivers killed in 2020, an increase of 33%.
92 people were killed in road accidents involving heavy vehicles in 2021, compared to 74 people killed in heavy vehicle accidents in 2020, an increase of 24%.
29 cyclists were killed in road accidents in 2021, compared to 26 riders killed in 2020.
April was the deadliest month of the year with 47 fatalities, and January was the month with the lowest number of fatalities with 16 deaths, probably due to Coronavirus closure that month.
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