Talkbacks Israel's Highway 90: An unforgiving road

A driving expert once argued that in most cases, the wrong word is used. Most of these tragedies are not "accidents" but "negligences."

When you know you are driving in poor conditions - potholes, uneven surfaces, weather conditions or poor visibility, faded markings, no barriers, congestion etc, your brain SHOULD be telling you to slow down and be more vigilant. But..nope... that's for sissies. Watch them: few bother to signal and when they do it's only as they've already started to overtake, turn, enter your lane etc. The vast majority drive with one hand on the wheel, the other is dangling out of the window or is slouched over the next seat, or reaching for the phone, the coffee or the snack that just can't wait until you can stop for it.

Most Israelis have been brought up on a diet of "me first": discourtesy, q self-centred sense of supremacy, total disregard for rules and the law, and for anything or anybody else. So what if I don't signal - the other driver should know what I want to do. So what if I block visibility by parking on a corner, or park in front of somebody else's gate. So what if I overtake on a solid line, which is there only to hinder ME and not because science provides the reason for it. So what if I drive at 90 km/h and right on somebody's bumper so that a sudden stop has me smashing through to the next driver's seat.

It only takes an hour or so of observation of Israeli drivers to get why they're killing so many on the roads - it's not the roads, it's them and their negligent, bad attitude. When they're talking while driving, they just HAVE to look directly at the person they're talking, even if they're at the back. As for using two arms to have full control, nah - one arm driving, one arm turning, one arm parking is what good, macho, hairy men do and too bad if the car veers out of control and it's too late to get that arm back in time. Checking for oncoming cars as you draw out of the side of the road (which you shouldn't have stopped in because you just had to answer that call) isn't necessary, not parking on a corner to obstruct other drivers or pedestrians doesn't enter their heads, signalling is apparently for them to decide, not to let other drivers know what to expect. As for allowing a person needing to change a lane, well, who do they think they are and if they have to take a risk to get off the highway, that's them being dumb, not me for not allowing safe or courteous transit.

It's not speed or a road that kills or maims. It is , in most cases, bad driving, lack of consideration or of anticipation and exceptionally bad driving teachers who pass their own bad habits on to the learner drivers.

The next factor is the almost total absence of law enforcement on the roads. The government would rather pay coalition money, have parties, upgrade to the latest luxury vehicles, spend billions on a luxury personal plane for their banana republic leader than invest in better policing, and certainly in replacing judges who think that a month of community service makes up for knocking a pedestrian down at a pedestrian crossing.

When Israelis get it that a small infringement costs them dear, or can result in having their offending vehicle permanently confiscated, or that causing an accident through their own negligence gets them a minimum of two years (served years, no early release), only then will they have to pay more attention to their attitude.

Israel Katz is the supreme example of just that attitude. He's happy to spend on roads and neglect proper, functional, reliable public transport to reduce congestion, but does absolutely nothing about reforming driver education (driving teachers simply hand down their own bad habits), or about the pressing need to jack up policing and enforcing draconian laws with even more draconian sentencing. This is the only language that this bumptious, bad attitude "chosen" nation can understand.