United Hatzalah’s Ambucycle unit in the city of Bnei Brak has recently been upgraded and now possesses a total of 31 ambucycles. These ambucycles are driven by volunteers who give up their time in order to save others 365 days-a-year.

Last week these volunteers got together for some extra training and a bit of a social get-together. The group kicked off the evening at Bnei Brak’s City Hall where the volunteers organized some of the ambucycles to form the Hebrew letters Lamed and Aleph, which is the Hebrew word for “No” and also symbolizes the number 31.

The representative word was meant to send a message to the residents of the city to refrain from dangerous driving that causes car accidents. Bnei Brak chapter head of United Hatzalah Ephraim Feldman said: “Unfortunately, the most common emergency call that we receive is car accidents. Over the past few months, we have been witnessing a steady incline in the number of car accidents taking place in our city and the surrounding area. We have decided that we need to be proactive and so we started an advocacy campaign aimed at raising the awareness of the residents to the issues surrounding dangerous driving in the hope that we will be able to prevent some of these horrific accidents.”

After stopping for a photo op, the unit drove through the city and headed to Kfar Saba for a group activity aimed at teaching the EMS volunteers how to reduce stress in tense situations as well as increasing the level of teamwork among the volunteers.

The campaign will be continuing throughout the next couple of weeks with volunteers heading to schools, shuls and community centers as well as orchestrating an online campaign to explain the dangers of careless driving and help raise social awareness among the Bnei Brak residents to the very real tragedies that can befall those who are reckless on the roads.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)