Transport law

The legal process taking place in the Traffic Court proceeds according to the Criminal Procedure Law, that is, the process in the court begins with the submission of an indictment to the Traffic Court.
The facts stated in the indictment must be backed up by evidence collected by the investigating unit and, according to the law, must be passed on to the defendant or his representative before the defendant responds to the indictment.
All facts stated in the indictment must be proven by any evidence: police testimony, witness testimony, breathalyzer test in case of drunk driving, traffic light plan in case of non-compliance with a red light.
Only if all facts have been proven during the trial and have passed the court’s acceptance and weight filter, the court will be authorized to convict the defendant and impose on him the punishment defined in the Traffic Ordinance.

Take, for example, the offense of drunk driving:

Drunk driving is defined in Section 62(3) of the Traffic Ordinance and is phrased as follows:
Anyone who commits one of these offenses, his punishment – two years in prison or a fine as stated in Section 61(a)(3) of the Penal Code, 1977 (hereinafter – the Penal Code) and if the offense is a fine offense judged by the court – a fine of 1.25 times the fine mentioned in Section 61(a)(1) of the Penal Code, and if he holds an operating permit as defined in Section 16D – a fine as mentioned in Section 61(a)(4) of the aforementioned law: 3) He is drunk while driving a vehicle, or while in charge of a vehicle, on the road or in a public place; for this purpose, “drunk” and “in charge of the vehicle” – as defined in Section 64B;

Section 64B – defines who is drunk:
“Drunk” – one of the following:

(1) Anyone who drinks an alcoholic beverage while driving or while in charge of the vehicle;
(2) Anyone in whose body there is a dangerous drug or the metabolites of a dangerous drug;
(3) Anyone in whose body there is alcohol at a concentration higher than the concentration set by the Minister, in consultation with the Minister of Health and with the approval of the Knesset’s Economic Committee, and it is presumed that this concentration was in his body in the three hours preceding the taking of breath, urine, or blood samples, as long as the opposite has not been proven;

(3A) Anyone listed below in whose body, according to a breath test, there is alcohol at a concentration exceeding 50 micrograms of alcohol per liter of exhaled air, or according to a blood test – at a concentration exceeding 10 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood:

(A) A new driver;
(B) A driver who is under 24 years of age;
(C) A driver while driving a commercial vehicle or a work vehicle whose total permissible weight according to the vehicle license exceeds 3,500 kilograms;
(D) A driver while driving a public vehicle.

A person who is under the influence of intoxicating drink or under the influence of a dangerous substance, provided that a laboratory test does not find that the concentration of alcohol in his blood is lower than the threshold set in the regulations under clause (3) or below the threshold mentioned in clause (3a), as appropriate.

Regulation 169a of the Traffic Regulations defines what an alcoholic drink is and provides exact numbers for section 3 in the definition of drunkenness:

169a. In this chapter –
“Alcohol” – ethyl alcohol, ethanol, ethyl alcohol;
“Breath test” – testing the exhaled air of a person by a device approved by the Minister of Health, in consultation with the Minister of Transportation, in a notice in the records, and the device shows the concentration of alcohol in the exhaled air or its equivalent in the blood of the examinee in a breath sample provided by the examinee;
“Laboratory test” – testing a sample of blood or urine to measure the concentration of alcohol in the blood, or the presence of intoxicating or dangerous drugs in the body of the examinee, in a laboratory or medical institution;
“The set measure” – (deleted);
“Examinee” – a person who is required to be examined according to the instructions of this chapter;
“Alcohol concentration in the body” – alcohol concentration in a sample of exhaled air or in a blood sample, whichever is higher, as appropriate:
(1) 240 micrograms of alcohol per liter of exhaled air;
(2) 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
From a synchrony of all the normative sources, it can be determined that a drunk is a person who consumed an alcoholic drink and the concentration of alcohol in the exhaled air (a test performed by a police device called – Breathalyzer) is more than 240 micrograms per liter of exhaled air or more than 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood (a test performed at a hospital).
In addition to the above, there are exceptional cases in which the legislator reduced the amount of alcohol concentration to 50 micrograms in exhaled air or 10 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood, and this is in cases of a new driver, a young driver or a driver driving a vehicle weighing more than 3,500 kg.
The legislator has set a penalty of up to two years imprisonment for a person convicted of drunk driving.
Since the legislator attributes extra severity to drunk driving, the legislator was not satisfied with denying freedom for two years but also added a minimum punishment of disqualification from holding a driving license for an additional two years.
Section 39a of the Traffic Ordinance states:
39a. A person was convicted of an offense under section 62(3), his penalty – in addition to any other punishment – is disqualification from obtaining or holding a driving license for a period of no less than two years, and if he has already been convicted of this offense in the year preceding that offense – disqualification for a period of no less than four years; however, the court is allowed, in special circumstances that will be explained in the verdict, to order disqualification for a shorter period.
As you can see, in order to understand and deal with an indictment filed for a drunkenness offense, it is highly recommended to hire a traffic law attorney, as only someone who is proficient in traffic laws and deals with it every day, knows all the normative sources and can help you handle the state and reach a less serious result of a punishment of two years imprisonment and no less serious than this a minimum punishment of actual disqualification for two years.
In addition to the specific offenses, the Minister of Transportation has enacted regulations under which for each offense in which you were convicted, apart from the punishment prescribed by law alongside that offense, you are also punished with points. The accumulation of a number of points will lead to an additional punishment in the form of administrative disqualification.
The scoring system is anchored in the Traffic Regulations:
A person with a driving license (hereinafter in this section – a driver) was convicted of an offense from the offenses detailed in the sixth appendix, will be obligated to points as the number set in it next to the offense in which he was convicted (in this section – points).

(a) The licensing authority will total the number of valid points recorded against a driver each time there is a change in the number of points recorded against them; for this purpose, “valid points” – are points that have not yet passed since the day of committing the offense for which they were recorded, the period referred to in subsections (b) or (c), as applicable, or that all rectification means imposed by the licensing authority have not yet been carried out because of them, if any (hereinafter in this section – valid points).
(b) Points will be valid for two years from the day of committing the offense.
(c) Despite the provisions of subsection (b), if a driver has accumulated 22 points or more in less than two years, the points will be valid for 4 years from the day of committing the offense.
(c1) The date of registering the points in the offenses register does not affect the counting of the periods as stated in subsections (b) and (c).
(d) (Canceled).
(e) Points ceased to be valid points, and thereafter points were registered against a driver due to an offense committed within the period referred to in subsection (b) or (c), as applicable, all the aforementioned points will be seen as valid points and the provisions of subsections (b) and (c) will apply to them, as applicable.
The rectification means referred to in regulation 547(a) are, in whole or in part:
(1) Proper driving courses and a test at the end;
(2) Theoretical driving test;
(3) Practical driving test;
(4) Disqualification of a driver from holding a driving license for a period or until the conditions set by the licensing authority are met;
(a) A driver with 12 to 22 valid points registered against them will be required to receive proper driving instruction in a basic course from the licensing authority and to pass a test successfully.
(b) A driver with 24 to 34 valid points registered against them will be required to receive proper driving instruction in an additional course from the licensing authority and to pass a test successfully.
(b1) Despite the provisions of subsections (a) and (b), a driver will not be required to receive such instruction before at least one year has passed from the day they were required to receive such instruction, as applicable, due to points that were previously registered against them.
(c) A driver with 36 valid points or more registered against them will be disqualified from holding a driving license for 3 months, and the licensing authority will renew their license at the end of the period in which their license was disqualified under this regulation.
(d) A driver with 72 valid points or more registered against them, or a driver who has been disqualified under regulation (c), and 36 valid points or more have been registered against them before six years have passed from the date of the last offense out of the offenses due to which the aforementioned disqualification was imposed, their license will be disqualified for 9 months and will be renewed at the end of the said period only after they have undergone medical tests with a certified doctor and tests as stated in regulations 202 to 210.
(e) The rectification means imposed on a driver under this regulation will be cumulative, and their imposition is not intended to derogate from any other authority given to the licensing authority.
(v) Points due to which a specific rectification measure was imposed, will not be imposed for the same rectification measure a second time, except for a theoretical driving test.
As you can see, the legislator was not content with a concrete punishment for each offense, but also punishes systemic traffic offenders with an additional penalty in the form of points. Accumulating these points may also lead to a disqualification of a driving license for an extended period.
Sixth addition– Points table
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In order to avoid administrative disqualification of a driving license, it is recommended to hire the services of a lawyer specializing in traffic laws, as an experienced lawyer can help you – based on the evidence in the case, to convert the offense to a lesser serious offense or to end the case with a lesser severe punishment and even has the ability to reduce the amount of points you will accumulate for that offense.