Death on our roads

It absolutely breaks my heart to hear of the rise of road deaths every day. Needless waste of lives, if ever there was one? We send our children to the Army with heavy hearts but, do we ever think that when we allow them to borrow our cars to drive, that we may not see them again? God Forbid!

Professor Elihu Richter and Dr.Yaakov Adler with the late Prof Gerry Ben David z”l and the iconic Zvi Weinberger who was Head of the prestigious Jerusalem College of Technology devoted a large part of their lives to make the roads safer.

Furthermore with Metuna, they attempted to educate drivers from an early age of what to be aware on the roads. Metuna, the organization in which I had the privilege to work with, was sadly never replaced when I was forced to give up my post as Director, due to personal family problems. However, due to the efforts of Avi Elhaharar, Shosh Arar and others on the Netanya Council supported by then Mayor Miriam Fierberg, we conducted a serious road safety program. Or Yarok with all of its potential did not come up to the bar. Even in Jerusalem Dr. Hershy Katz who worked for the Municipality, made great changes. WE even tried to bring changes in the Old City, where road safety procedures had never been applied.

There’s no excuse for road death. As a result of Metuna’s Road Safety Conference in Jerusalem, when the late Rav Yitshak Cohen was the Minister of Transport all preventative measures are in place. The roundabouts and speed bumps were added to reduce speed.

Rav Cohen z”l was our Guest of Honor that year and was very impressed with the presentation of Frank Nunneley from Kent in the UK. WE helped arrange his visit to the UK to learn about their road safety and life saving efforts.

Metuna went into the schools and took 15-16 year old pupils to spend a day learning about road safety. We worked also with a professional racing driver who had his own training school, but used his services to help raise awareness of the use of speed and its lethal effects, as compared to the sport of racing!

Water under the bridge, it may sound to you, the reader. However what is happening these days is horrendous.

I do hope that with our new Government in place there will be someone who will take it upon themselves to end petty bickering and acknowledge that DEATH ON THE ROADS does not discriminate. It will have to be someone who puts human life above all!

This is the most that I can contribute at my advanced age, but I am happy to discuss this subject at any time.

To “Long Life and no more troubles”!