Award for non-smoking passengers

A NIS6 million award has been made against Israel Railways for failing to enforce a law banning tobacco smoking on railway stations, according to a story by Dror Halavy for Hamodia.

Smoking on Israel Railways trains is illegal, and, based on a 2012 law banning smoking in public places, so is smoking on train platforms.

Repeated complaints by passengers to train officials was said to have yielded no action, other than warnings by officials to offenders to stop.

Backing up the plaintiffs’ complaints was a 2013 report organized by attorneys, who visited 53 stations and filmed people smoking freely on platforms.

The failure to enforce the station ban led to a class action lawsuit that was first certified by a Jerusalem court in 2014.

The railway company claimed that by preventing people with a lit cigarette from entering stations and placing signs inside the stations it had done the maximum to warn people not to smoke.

But the court said that the railroad should have been more proactive, and that it did not show that it had taken ‘reasonable action’ to prevent smoking.

The court awarded the plaintiffs, who represented all non-smokers who ride the trains, with the NIS6 million award.

Israel Railways has not yet announced how the money will be distributed to non-smokers.