In April 2018 the Israel National Road Safety Authority published a report evaluating ways to reduce the number of people injured as a result of smartphone use while driving
In May 2017 the National Road Safety Authority appointed the “Sheffer Committee”, a public committee to evaluate the subject of smartphone use during driving from various perspectives.
The committee was appointed as a result of the consistent rise in the number of people injured and killed in recent years. Their assumption was that widespread smartphone use while driving is a significant cause of the rising trend in road traffic accidents. The committee’s aim was to study the subject of smartphone use while driving in order to find ways to contend with the problem.
From the committee’s literature review of worldwide studies it arose that use of a mobile phone while driving significantly increases (10 times) the risk of a road traffic accident occurring. It was also found that the rising trend of text messaging correlates with the increase in lethal accidents. Based on the insights that arose from the report, the National Road Safety Authority constructed a programme including a series of actions to promote, amongst other things, research, legislation and enforcement and driving instruction.
The executive summary (in Hebrew)
The full report (in Hebrew)
