Procrastination, disregard for the legislature and officials who change their minds twice a day: The saga of the charge for installing anti-child forgetting systems in vehicles is reaching a peak these days, and it seems that along the way they forgot the toddlers whose regulations were intended to protect their lives. Furious, but hidden from view, negotiations are taking place in recent days between Transport Minister Merav Michaeli, Economy Committee Chairman Michael Bitton and Coalition Chairman Boaz Toporovsky to find alternatives that will provide the latter for the summer and the resurgence of tragic cases.
The reason: if Michaeli does not succeed in leading to a compromise, the Economics Committee does not pass the regulation to cancel the obligation to install the systems, on March 1 an regulation led by her predecessor Miri Regev will take effect. As early as last October, Minister Michaeli announced that she intended to repeal the installation, but at the same time Bitton demanded that the Ministry of Transportation prepare an alternative plan to save the children’s lives. Time passed and Michaeli’s decision was backed by the government, and in recent days the cancellation regulation also came to the committee’s table, but the committee’s demand from the ministry was not met.
This created an absurd situation where the Minister of Transport and her office know they intend to act to repeal the regulations, committee chairman Bitton knows he is interested in them or an alternative solution to a situation close to his heart, but only in the 90th minute did the Ministry of Transport recall a regulation. Resolve in professional discussions around the committee table.
Going back ten years, every summer according to data published in discussions, 3-4 babies who died in a car in the summer heat die. In the 20th Knesset, the chairman of the former Science Committee, MK Uri Maklev, there are many discussions on the subject, the Ministry of Transportation undertakes to come up with a solution, but the start-up nation is unable to solve the problem.
In the previous government, former Minister Miri Regev brings the regulations that require the installation of a system against forgetting children in vehicles for the committee’s approval, and a new series of discussions on the subject opens in the Economics Committee, led by former chairman MK Yaakov Margi. The Ministry of Transportation initially requires adherence to an Israeli standard, but Margie opposes and there are approved alternatives from Europe and possible importers. The opposition is also mobilized to pass regulations. MK Toporovsky, then in the opposition, met with senior officials from the Ministry of Transportation and professionals who convinced him of the need to install the system and the support of the opposition became a fait accompli.
The Ministry of Transport is changing its position
But then the government changes and the service changes and the Ministry of Transportation changes its skin and enthusiastic persuasions in favor of the new systems, the officials move to convince the Knesset members with the same fervor why the systems in question do not save lives.
Needless to say, the Ministry of Finance is of course opposed to “wasting” money and the Prime Minister’s Office is opposed to regulation and so while the government is opposed, the Knesset is opposed to the abolition. In the first debate held in this Knesset in July, a first decision is made on the subject of postponing the installation from August 1, 2021 to March 20, 2022, this decision is also made when committee members actually express support for installing the system.
In October, another hearing was held in which Minister Michaeli also participated, and even then she announced her intention to cancel the installation of her predecessor in office. Bitton criticized the commission for not receiving a report on the application, but rather explanations, saying that if there was no subsidy, the installation would remain in effect.
MK Boaz Toporovsky mentions in the same discussion that this is a regulation that the Ministry of Transportation wanted to install, and that the ministry officials explained the importance to him and even pressured importers to bring products. “Bezalel Smutritz said that only a donkey does not change his mind, and claimed that the professionals did present the minister’s position at the time but opposed it and claimed that no orderly process had been carried out.
As time passes and at the meeting of the Economics Committee on January 18, Bitton opens the meeting and sends (again) a clear message to Michaeli: An installation is valid and if anyone wants to debate it, it will only be in the Knesset. “
Bitton also attacked the government, saying “I did not know the government was repealing laws, I thought the Knesset was repealing. “Measures are being taken to encourage parents to install, such as a discount on the license in exchange for installing a device to prevent children from being forgotten.” This message also reaches the minister’s ears, but since then a whole month has passed and no proposal has been forwarded to the committee.
One week to the final date
Minister Michaeli is also participating in the discussion that is taking place today (Wednesday) in the committee on another subject, and the message is being conveyed again. “It is difficult for us to cancel the installation without knowing that there is an action plan for this coming summer, your glove,” Bitton told Sarah Michaeli and also suggested budgeting the system installation as budgeted for Mobilai systems installation. Which unfortunately has not been proven in products to prevent children from forgetting.
And so since July the Ministry of Transport has been dragging its feet just seven days before the regulations go into effect for the long-awaited negotiations. Bits of various kinds have already come to the table on the part of Bitton and Toporovsky: distribution of 100,000 kits to underprivileged populations in milk droplets, use of budget surpluses in the “Mobilai” regulation where several tens of millions remain in favor of state systems, voluntary installation of citizens in exchange for symbolic credit during license renewal The vehicle and more.
But even at this stage, the Ministry of Transportation is only offering budgeting in favor of a campaign on the subject, since the ministry’s position is that the existing systems have not been proven to be effective. It is already being said that the ministry has increased its budget by NIS 500,000 to carry out information and a campaign on the subject together with the Ralba – in milk drops, activities aimed at specific sectors (publications in cities) and more. “To prevent people from forgetting their children in the car,” MK Toporovsky told Globes.
The question that will be resolved in the coming days: how much is the state willing to invest to save lives, and a sub-question about the Knesset-government relationship and the legislature’s ability to be part of formulating policy against government decisions and not just as a rubber stamp.