Traffic in New York.

The number of deaths in road accidents in Israel in 2012 was the lowest in 50 years, Transportation and Road Safety Minister Yisrael Katz announced on Sunday.

Since the start of the year, there were 287 deaths in road accidents in Israel, a 25 percent drop from 2011. Katz said that Israel is now 10th in the world in terms of fewest road accident deaths per kilometers driven.

In the past four years, there has been a 20 percent decrease in road accident deaths compared to the four years before that, according to Katz.

The number of road accidents has been going down even though the number of vehicles in Israel has continued to rise.

“In addition to this year’s achievement, we’ve seen a decline in accidents over the past ten years,” Katz said. “The number of accidents has fallen. The number of injuries and fatalities has fallen.”