Carry On Koby

2 parents, 6 children, dead.

Families destroyed.

Unimaginable devastation.

 

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/driver-arrested-for-suspected-manslaughter-after-family-of-8-killed/

 

 

How important was that phone call!!

 

 

The Government has got to get tough on road users and not just in the matter of drivers using mobile phones when driving. I’m talking about driving generally. It’s like ‘the wild west’ on Israel’s roads and everyone talks about it as if it’s OTHER people, never them, who are part of the problem – and THAT is the problem! No one thinks that they have to change their own road behaviour, only that OTHER people have to change.

 

 

We need tougher laws AND we need them to be policed.

 

 

People get into their cars, they get behind the wheel and they change. The reckless drivers I see on the roads, I cannot believe that all of them, when out of the car, when walking in the streets, conduct themselves with the selfishness, irresponsibility and that recklessness which I see on the roads – if they did, the pavements would be no-go areas, too!

 

 

The fact that so few drivers in Israel acknowledge the good road manners of other road users, that they are so rude, is extremely telling! It is indicative of their state of mind behind the wheel, their arrogance and selfishness, and in the context of their being on the road, driving a car, it is chilling!

 

 

We need the law and justice system to FORCE drivers to use their indicators (I indicate and I reckon that most drivers think that my hazard lights are broken!).

 

 

We need the police and justice system to come down HARD on drivers who have a hand – or two hands! – on their phones when they are driving and there need to be consequences for people texting or making calls etc at traffic lights because that takes the driver’s concentration off the road and can lead to him/her driving at the wrong time!

 

 

We need the justice system to come down HARD on drivers who are speeding.

 

 

We need the police/justice system to come down HARD on drivers who move into the space which other drivers are responsibly leaving between themselves and the car in front of them.

 

 

We need the police/justice system to come down HARD on drivers who swerve in and out of lanes (not that all drivers even acknowledge that there are lanes on the road!) as if they are in dodgem cars at a fair.

 

 

We need a justice system that comes down HARD on drink drivers and those who are driving under the influence of drugs, including cannabis.

 

 

We need a legal frame work, effectively policed, and a justice system that will not just tinker at the edges, that will not just pay lip-service to critics like me, but a system that will force change, a change of behaviour which kills but which very few people accept they manifest on the roads, behaviour which drivers do not consider is theirs but is other people’s.

 

 

Everyone wants safer roads but most people think that OTHER people have to change their behaviour. That being the case, no one is going to change. Change needs to be forced by the legal system, the police and the justice system – NOW!

 

 

We need to see heavy, heavy fines, fines which are commensurate with the financial means of the driver! The fines have got to hurt!

 

 

We need to see prison sentences – long ones! – we need to see people losing their driving licences for a long, long time!

 

 

Behaviour needs to be changed and the Government must force the change.

 

 

We put our lives, and the lives of our children, on the line in this game of Russian Roulette, which is exactly what it is when we take to the road in this country.

 

 

 

AND, let me be clear, my criticism of car drivers is also a criticism of motorbike riders on the road.

 

 

Pedal bike riders and electric bike riders, not all, but many, are also reckless on the roads – and their recklessness can cause car accidents so whilst I don’t think that they are part of this conversation, there is certainly a conversation to be had with reference to them.

 

 

Some people will criticise me, will say that the Government hasn’t got the money, can’t afford, to make the changes. The Government MUST find the money! Look at the Atar family and then try to say that the Government can’t afford to make the changes! Besides, the fines/financial penalties would bring in a lot of money and think of the health service cost savings!

 

 

JUSTICE MUST BE DONE AND MUST BE SEEN TO BE DONE.

WE NEED SOME SERIOUS, HARD-HITTING DETERRENTS, NOW!