Background
As part of the radio program “Closing the Loop” on Radio North, hosted by Adv. Tal Kaufman, Partner and Head of the Wealth Management and Intergenerational Transfer Department at ABADI & CO., the upcoming episode will focus on one of the most pressing issues on Israel’s roads: fatal road accidents and the responsibility for preventing them.
For this episode, Tal hosts Adv. Ofer Horesh, a leading traffic law specialist and founder of a law firm with over 35 years of experience dedicated exclusively to traffic law.
Rather than simply telling drivers to “drive carefully,” the program asks a broader and more challenging question:
If we already know how to prevent many fatal road accidents, why are hundreds of people still losing their lives on Israel’s roads every year?
A Decade of Fatalities: Why Does It Keep Happening?
In 2025, 459 people were killed in road accidents in Israel, the highest number of fatalities recorded in 19 years.
The discussion examines the broader trend, including the fluctuations in annual fatalities over the past decade, and asks whether the numbers should be viewed as inevitable, or as a failure that can and must be addressed.
The program explores the four major factors contributing to road fatalities:
- Human error - speeding, distraction, mobile phone use, alcohol and drugs, fatigue, violations, and poor judgment.
- Infrastructure -dangerous intersections, inadequate road separation, unsafe shoulders, poor planning, and known high-risk locations.
- Enforcement, penalties and deterrence - laws alone are insufficient if drivers do not believe there is a real likelihood of being caught.
- Government policy - from infrastructure investment and enforcement resources to driver training and the implementation of recommendations from previous reports.
At the heart of the discussion is a simple but important observation:
No one leaves home in the morning intending to kill someone.
Yet a seemingly minor human mistake can have irreversible consequences.
Personal Responsibility vs. State Responsibility
The conversation moves beyond the question of who is at fault and examines who bears responsibility for preventing the next fatal accident.
What happens when a driver speeds on a road with a known infrastructure problem?
What happens when enforcement is insufficient?
What happens when driver training does not adequately prepare new drivers for real-life risks?
And what responsibility does the state bear when it knows about a dangerous location and fails to address it?
As Adv. Ofer Horesh emphasizes:
“Personal responsibility and state responsibility do not contradict one another.”
The goal is not simply to find someone to blame. It is to identify responsibility in order to prevent the next tragedy.
Reforming Traffic Enforcement
The episode also addresses Israel’s ongoing reform of traffic enforcement, which transfers a significant number of traffic offenses from the criminal proceedings handled by traffic courts to an administrative framework, ranging from administrative fines to an administrative traffic tribunal.
The reform is intended to reduce the burden on the courts and shorten proceedings, but it also raises important questions:
Does a faster process come at the expense of deterrence, drivers’ due process rights, or the ability to properly examine each traffic offense?
And during this period of transition, are we strengthening enforcement,or potentially weakening it?
From the Road to the Culture Behind the Wheel
The discussion also looks beyond law enforcement and asks what our broader culture says about the way we drive.
We are constantly rushing to work, to meetings, to answer messages, to get somewhere on time.
And sometimes, we bring that same urgency behind the wheel.
Perhaps the question is not only how we drive, but what kind of culture makes us feel that arriving now is more important than arriving safely.
Can We Build a Safer System?
A strong road-safety system cannot rely on the assumption that people will never make mistakes.
People make mistakes. The real question is:
How do we prevent a human mistake from becoming a fatal one?
The episode examines whether theoretical studies and a driving test are enough to prepare new drivers for real-world risks — from recognizing danger before it occurs and managing fatigue and pressure, to understanding braking distances, driving alongside trucks, responding to pedestrians, and the dangers of mobile phone use.
A driver’s license should be viewed as:
The starting point of responsibility, not a guarantee against accidents.
What Do We Take Away From the Program?
The discussion leaves listeners with three key messages:
- No one leaves home intending to cause a fatal accident, but human error exists.
- Not every accident can be prevented, but many fatal outcomes can.
- A driver’s responsibility does not absolve the state of its responsibility, and vice versa.
Ultimately, the true test of Israel’s transportation system is simple:
How many people make it home safely?
Because behind every accident there is more than a case file. There is a family.
And behind every case is a person who could still have been here.
As Adv. Ofer Horesh concludes:
“We need more judges to reduce the pressure on the courts, so that our cemeteries can be less full.”
One Team. Committed. All the way.
