Helping an old lady cross the street was always considered a good deed, but now it also turns out to be an important one: more than 60 percent of pedestrians killed over the past year in traffic accidents in the greater Tel Aviv area were over age 60, according to police data.

This figure is neither surprising nor exceptional for 2004, and in the previous year, too, elderly pedestrians were the primary traffic casualties in the Tel Aviv district. 

Over the years, wide-scale advertising campaigns were launched to educate children about proper road conduct. They were taught to cross the road only at a pedestrian crossing and in a straight line, to look in both directions before crossing, and not to chase a wayward ball into oncoming traffic. Thanks to these publicity efforts, the percentage of children hurt by cars at pedestrian crossings fell. In the Tel Aviv district, two children were killed in the past year while crossing the road, compared to 39 adult pedestrians, 25 of them over age 60. 

"It's easier for us to explain to children," said Superintendent Noam Begeinsky, chief of the Tel Aviv district's traffic division, who agrees there's a problem with the toll on the elderly. "They're always in frameworks of school or after-school activities. We can't reach independent adults at home to explain. We are trying in our own way to treat this phenomenon, but I think the only serious way we'll be able to reach adults at home and educate them is through a long-term media campaign." 

The traffic division concedes that in many instances, adults were injured for the same reason that had always been given as a warning to children: they crossed the road without looking right and left to make sure it's clear, and didn't use a pedestrian crossing. 

The 41 pedestrian deaths in the Tel Aviv district is remarkable. More than 73 percent of fatalities in the past year were not speeding drivers, nor drivers who fell asleep at the wheel or crossed a continuous white lane divider, but rather pedestrians who were killed while crossing a street. The nationwide rate stood at 34 percent. 

"This is certainly a problem unique to our district, partly because of its urban nature, and also because we don't have many highways," said Begeinsky. "We have not yet managed to identify a particular site where more pedestrians were hurt. It happens everywhere." 

Traffic cops know that the number of elderly fatalities in traffic accidents goes up, among other reasons, because this population has a harder time recuperating from injuries. 

"In many cases, a slight hit from a car is enough to kill an older person, whereas a younger person would recover from such a fall," he said. 

The traffic division is contemplating handing out more tickets for pedestrian "traffic offenders." Police are riled by the public's perception of road safety as a battle over the road and driving, not grasping that many fatalities are irresponsible pedestrians.