The Israeli economy lost NIS 35 billion between 2004 and 2006 as a result of traffic accidents, according to a special National Road Safety Authority report.

The report was presented to Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer on Tuesday, during a meeting with the leaders of the transportation sector.

The report also shows that in 2006, losses to the economy from road accidents totaled NIS 11.6 billion, about 2 percent of Israel's gross national product.

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Lior Carmel, who helped establish the National Road Safety Authority, explains that the assessment of direct and indirect damages takes into consideration costs of medical care, reduced productivity of persons injured in road accidents, property damage, institutional costs, the costs of traffic delays as a result of accidents and damage to the welfare of citizens.

According to Carmel, the purpose of analyzing the costs is to persuade decision-makers that investment in road safety is not only an ethical and humane issue, but an economic one as well: "The economy suffers a loss of nearly 2 million work days annually from road accidents.

Multiply this by the average wage, and you will get a huge sum," said Carmel. In light of the data, the authority has asked Fischer to support action against sweeping cuts in the budget allocated for traffic accidents prevention, as part of broad budget cuts currently under discussion for government ministries.

The report also states that among Western countries Israel has the highest traffic accident mortality rate of children ages 0 to 14.

In spite of these worrying statistics, Carmel expressed some optimism: The authority reports that there has been a NIS 600 million decrease in the costs of road accidents over the past two years.

The relevant costs in 2004 were estimated at NIS 12.2 billion. The authority attributes the decrease to growing investments in the battle against traffic accidents, and increased public awareness of road safety.

But some in the field claim that the reduction in the total number of road accidents involving injuries is related to improvements in vehicle safety.