Most people get on a bus and feel safe, its size, surrounded by steel and upholstery, giving the passenger a feeling of safety, perhaps a false sense of security.
According to government officials, buses in Israel are involved in more accidents than any other class of four-wheel-or-more vehicles, including cars, taxis, ambulances, and trucks.
There are 13,000 buses in Israel and in 2008 alone; there have been 574 serious accidents, some involving fatalities. That number Transportation Ministry officials explain is proportionately about six times higher than other four wheel vehicles.
33 people died in bus-related accidents in 2008, significantly higher than 2007, in which 16 died the entire year. (The figure 33 for 2008 does not include the fatalities in Tuesday�s accident).
One of the major questions being raised following the latest fatal accident is why no agency seems to enforce the law. Buses traveling inter-city routes are required to have seat belts for every passenger. This one did not. Even at this early stage of the investigation, experts report that if the passengers were belted in, lives would have been saved since most of the people were thrown from the vehicle as it flipped over repeatedly down into the ravine.
SOME OTHER MAJOR BUS ACCIDENTS INVOLVING FATALITIES
October 9, 1999: 54 singles went on a day trip in the Golan Heights area, using the Jack Yuzlari Bus Company. The bus turned left at Golani Junction at about 10:45am and shortly thereafter, the driver lost control and the vehicle went off the road into a ravine. 17 passengers were killed.
July 2004: A bus carrying students from the Bet Chinuch School in Moshav Bet Yitzchak crashed into an IDF jeep near Kfar Yona Junction. The bus flipped over into incoming traffic and three students were killed. 50 others were injured.
June 11, 1985: A train collided with a school bus carrying students from the Brenner School in Petach Tikvah. 19 students who were on a northern area school trip were killed and three adults, the teacher, a parent and the driver.
In all the cases listed above, and it appears this was the case on Tuesday near Eilat; human error was the cause, not road conditions or mechanical failure.
(Yechiel Spira � YWN Israel)
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=27339
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