And not by a little, either. Counterintuitive as it may be, the drop in road deaths and severe injuries for 1999 was dramatic. There is no catch in these statistics. Deaths, injuries, and accidents went down precipitously at the same time that the number of vehicles on the road increased - from 1.7 million in 1998 to 1.73 million last year. According to the Transport Ministry's estimate, the number of kilometers driven also went up - from about 34.1 billion to approximately 35 billion.
Experts disagree on the causes.
They also disagree on the significance of the statistics. But in the perspective of Israeli history, last year's drop in road deaths was the most dramatic since 1980. Taking a global perspective, however, what has been happening over the years in this country isn't unusual at all. Traffic accidents have been going down in all countries of the world. In Israel, the worst period ever was the 1970s.