Deadly Highway 31: today’s tragic traffic accident was not
the first
Highway 31, the scene of today’s tragic traffic accident
that took the lives of 8 women and injured tens, has a history of fatal traffic
accidents, due to narrow shoulders and lanes without separation.
Highway 31. A
history of traffic accidents. Photo Credit: Israeli Police Traffic Division / Channel 2
News
The fatal traffic accident that took place today on Highway
31, in which eight women were killed and tens of others injured, joins a long
list of accidents in the same area.
Based on data received from the “Or Yarok” association for
safer driving in Israel, the highway is labeled “red”, and takes the lives of
nine people each year, while injuring more than 200 drivers, passengers and
pedestrians yearly. Only last weekend a pedestrian was killed on Highway 31
after being hit by a private vehicle.
“Highway 31 is a ‘red’ and dangerous road. The highway
consists of one lane for each direction, without separation to prevent head-on
collisions. In addition, the highway shoulders are narrow, the entrances and
exits are dangerous and are not organized, a fact which highly endangers the
passengers on it,” said Shmuel Abuav, Chief Executive of Or Yarok. Abuav
stressed that “the driver is not always the only guilty party in traffic
accidents. The state has a responsibility. The Ministry of Tranportation must
improve the infrastructure on the highway, by building a separation barrier
between the lanes and fixing the entrances and exits to villages alongside the
highway.”
Last October, Ignat Ilchenko and his 4-year-old daughter
Maya were killed on Highway 31. They were returning from a family vacation in
the Dead Sea area, when a vehicle driving on the opposite lane illegally
bypassed a police car and a truck and hit the Ilchenko family vehicle
forcefully. The mother and sister of the family were also injured during the
accident.
No comments:
Post a Comment