Car accidents on the decline as Israelis shelter at home
The number of Israelis injured in traffic accidents has dropped significantly in recent months, officials said Thursday, coinciding with increasingly stringent social distancing rules that have kept most people at home and off the roads.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), between January and March 2020, 65 people died in accidents, a decline of 20.7 percent over the same period in 2019.
The number of total traffic accidents during those months in which at least one person was seriously injured was 2,503, a 24% drop from last year.
Transportation Ministry website figures on Thursday put the number of dead so far in April at 12. It said the number of fatalities since the beginning of 2020 was 26% lower than the number for the same period in 2019.
In March , there were 1,728 total accidents with 18 fatalities and 2,442 injured, according to the CBS. By comparison, March 2019 saw 4,908 accidents in which 25 were killed and 7,227 were injured.
The lower numbers come as Israelis have been sequestered in their homes for much of the past couple of months as part of the national effort to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
The vast majority of Israelis have not been traveling to work as many places of employment either ceased operations or moved most or all of their staff to working from home.
Intercity travel has been severely curtailed and occasionally called off altogether, with police erecting roadblocks.