Deputy Minister of Transportation Tippi Hotovely, responsible for the area of road safety has been coming up with ways to decrease accidents. She says that 80% of accidents are due to the driver being distracted. her approach, therefore, is to minimize the possible distractions.

Last week Hotovely recommended an idea that perhaps young drivers, especially with the minimum age now being lowered, not be allowed to use a mobile phone at all in the car while driving, even with a hands free device. The problem is not the phone or the hands, but the distraction of talking. her idea met with opposition and she will most likely drop it.

Now Hotovely has pulled an old idea out of the hat and is resurrecting it. She wants to raise the fine for people caught using their cellphones, including for text messaging, while driving. Hotovely would raise the fine to 1500 NIS from the current rate of 1000 NIS..

The large fine would be a deterrent, and without the mobile phone there would be less distractions. I don't know why 1000 NIS was not enough of a deterrent, but 1500 would be, but if it works and decreases the number of accidents, great!