HaShem Guards The Fools--But That Only Goes So Far

From Jewish and Breaking News:

...In a halachic opinion made public ahead of a conference on road safety, Rabbi Re'em Hacohen, head of the Hesder Yeshiva in Otniel, near Hebron, said that reckless drivers and smokers show a callous disregard for human life - whether their own or others - and are therefore considered invalid witnesses.

"Anyone who blatantly and intentionally commits traffic violations, thus endangering human lives, is also purposely transgressing Halacha (Jewish law)," said Hacohen in a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post, "and this disqualifies him to serve as a witness."

...He said that both former chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and Chief Rabbi of Hebron-Kiryat Arba Dov Lior agreed with him.

Read the whole thing.

In a day and age when the threat of cherem no longer has an effect, will the prospect of being possul l'eydus have any more influence? And just how would this be enforced?

Technorati Tag: Halacha and Israel.