Israel’s National Road Safety Authority reports that 372 people were killed on the nation’s roadways in 2016 as compared to 356 in 2015.

According to the report 225 of the deaths were Jews, a nine percent decline from the previous year and 121 were Arabs, a nineteen percent increase from the previous year. the remaining 26 are “others”.

If one analyzes the information age groups, most (94) of those killed were between 25 and 44-years-old. The second group is persons 65+ with 86 deaths. Most pedestrians killed (43) were 65 or older.

There was a sharp increase in the number of deaths among riders of electric bicycles, which continue to increase in popularity. In 2015 there two deaths on electric bicycles as compared to nine in 2016. The number of pedestrians killed dropped in 2016 from 114 to 101. Also reported is the number of men killed was three times the number of women.

Most of the fatalities occurred on intra-city roadways with Route 4 being the worst, with 22 fatalities. In second place is Route 1 – the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway with 14 fatalities.

Since the start of the state, there have been a staggering 33,006 road deaths including 5,041 children. This number exceeds the number of dead from war and terror!

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)