Knowing how to behave on the roads in Israel when the sirens sound presents a confusing challenge. This issue arose in a case recently heard in the Central District Traffic Court. A man was driving on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway in the afternoon at a speed of 157 kilometers per hour, in a stretch where the speed limit is 90 kilometers per hour. The driver was arrested, and his license was revoked for 30 days.
The driver - through his attorney, Adv. Ayalon Oron, former chairman of the National Traffic Committee of the Israel Bar Association and author of the Traffic Encyclopedia - requested to shorten the period of license revocation. He claimed that there is currently an emergency situation due to the war with Iran and that driving during these days should not be treated as it is in normal times.
Adv. Oron added, during his client’s journey there were two alerts during which he stopped the vehicle, but that he had driven fast to reach a protected area, and did not pay attention to the speed at which he was driving. It should be emphasized that when the driver was caught speeding it was not during an alert. The driver insisted that he wanted to spend as little time on the road as possible, due to the fact that he was in an unprotected space and due to the number of alerts during the journey.
The prosecutor opposed the driver's defense, due to, among other things, his traffic history, which included 16 previous traffic violations.
Possibility of lethal results
The court ruled that when there is an alert including sirens, one should not drive at high speed. The court added that although this is a period in which a state of emergency has been declared in the home front due to the Iran war, this does not justify driving at the speed at which the defendant was driving.
The court noted that driving at high speed "not only does not reduce the danger, but may actually increase it." In the court's view, when alert sounds on the roads, the more likely a driver is to be killed when he driving at high speed.
The court stressed the driver's dangerousness, due to the circumstances of the offense and his behavior on the roads in light of his traffic history. The court noted that serious speeding offenses can even result in actual imprisonment due to their dangerousness, and emphasized that during an emergency on the road, one should not accelerate, since then, a fatal outcome may more likely occur.
Despite this, the court found it appropriate to shorten the period of license revocation from 30 days to 20 days, after considering all the data. Although the court did not say why the punishment was reduced, it can be learned from this ruling that the state of emergency does have a certain effect on the behavior of drivers, although the court does not acknowledge its importance.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 16, 2026.
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