Many Israelis who are R”L not yet Shomer Shabbos, travel to the Beit Shemesh area on Shabbos to enjoy the nature areas, particularly on warmer weekends such as this past Friday and shabbos. As a result, many park vehicles on or too close to train tracks in the Beit Shemesh area, resulting in a most dangerous situation.

According to the Shemesh Net News report, motorists looking for a place to leave their vehicle ahead of a picnic or other outing, at times, park dangerously close to the train tracks, placing themselves at risk.

The report adds that while Israel Railways does not operate on Shabbos, as is said in the IDF, “Every Shabbos has a motzei Shabbos”, and while Israel Railways officials explain the railway does not operate on the holy day, it does operate to ‘clear tracks’ on motzei Shabbos, including trains moving on the tacks, and thereby endangering the parked vehicles and their occupants when Shabbos ends.

B’chasdei Hashem, train operations’ officials realized the situation and notified Israel Police, which sent patrols to the area, to reach the drivers of vehicles and instruct them to move them to safe venues, avoiding any possible catastrophe.

According to the Israel Railways spokesperson, there were over 15,000 cases of vehicles on or too near tracks in 2018, leading to thousands of minutes of delays for riders.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)