At the hospital a few years ago, next to the bed of my son who had been severely injured in a car accident, I had many long nights to think about how to prevent accidents.
After consulting with experts in the Transportation Ministry, I put together a proposed bill, and when I was elected to the Knesset, I tried to get it passed. The Transportation Ministry supported the bill. But it did not pass due to the “professional” opposition of then-Justice Minister Tzippy Livni and her ministry workers. This bill will be one of my first goals when, with G-d’s help, I will be in an official legislative position in Israel.
What does the bill state? Simply that when a driver recklessly injures others, he must compensate his victims from his own pocket.
If a bus driver knew that his insurance won’t cover him if he harms another while fiddling with his cell phone, would he continue to do so, or would he focus on the road?
What are we more afraid of? Running a red light, or driving without insurance? Clearly, driving without insurance is more frightening. But driving without insurance does not endanger lives. Ahh, but driving without insurance places all the responsibility for possible injury of others on me. Now that is scary.
Today, when we drive, we don’t see people. We see penalties. Mandatory insurance has eliminated the dimension of responsibility from our driving.
Everyone agrees that lack of responsibility is the main factor causing MVAs. But we ignore this fact and focus instead on road infrastructure (very important) and on more and more penalties (also important).
Mandatory insurance is obviously vital. We do not want to find ourselves in a situation in which the guilty driver does not have the means to compensate his victim. But my bill said that for certain road offenses – we can call them highway bullying (for example, passing over a white line, entering an intersection after the light has been red for more than a second, texting while driving) – the insurance company, after it has paid compensation to the victim, has the right to sue the offending driver for that compensation.
If you were a bully on the road, you made light of human life in a disgraceful manner. If you are caught, you should be punished for breaking the driving laws. But if your bad driving caused an accident and people were injured, you should be required to deal with the repercussions just like divorced fathers – your salary should be frozen, you should not be allowed to exit the country, etc.
A person who brings a new life into this world is responsible for that life. The same should be true of a person who causes a victim to make an unplanned exit from this world.
Right now, the state – or an insurance company – is responsible for major car accidents. It shouldn’t be that way. The person should be responsible and made to feel that responsibility.
Until then, we will just have to manage with more and more penalties.