Last update - 00:00 28/10/2006
Eight people killed in traffic accidents over weekend
By Mijal Grinberg, Eli Ashkenazi and Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service
Eight people were killed in weekend traffic accidents throughout the country,
Orly Emanuelov, 4, was hit by a car and killed in Netanya while crossing a street Saturday night. The girl's father, who was with her, sustained critical injuries.
Also Saturday night, a 58-year-old man was killed while crossing Road
70 near the Galilee village of Yarka. A 6-year-old boy was killed Saturday afternoon in a hit-and-run accident near Anata, north of Jerusalem. The driver later turned himself in.
Early Saturday morning, a man was killed in Haifa after the car in which he was riding veered off the road into an electricity pylon. The driver
was hospitalized in serious condition. Police did not know why the vehicle left the road.
One woman was killed and seven other people were injured in a three-car accident Friday evening on the Ma'aleh Adumim-Dead Sea road. One of the
injured was in serious condition, while the remainder sustained light to moderate injuries. The accident occurred when the driver of one of the
vehicles lost control of his car and hit the other two. The
driver of the first car fled on foot with a passenger from his
car.
A 62-year-old woman from the Western Galilee village of Kawkab was killed Friday morning while crossing the road. A similar accident claimed the
life of a 70-year-old man in Rehovot, also on Friday morning.
In another accident Friday, a driver was killed after swerving into a bus on Road 3, near Kibbutz Revadim in the south of the country. The driver of the bus was slightly injured.
On Thursday night, a 40-year-old resident of Kfar Julis in the north was killed while crossing the Yarka-Dir-al-Assad road.
A truck hit an empty passenger train near Kibbutz Tzora on Friday, causing no injuries.
On Friday afternoon the driver of a quad bike was seriously injured when he was hit by a car in Kiryat Ata. The circumstances of the accident are under investigation.
A heavy downpour caused by a front moving in from the Mediterranean Sea caused continuous floods and traffic jams throughout the country this weekend.
In Tel Aviv, one of the city's main arteries, Ibn Gvirol Street, was closed to traffic after water accumulated in a large pool near Dizengoff Street, making it impassible to vehicles.
Firefighters in the northern town of Afula and the southern city of Ashkelon rescued drivers from cars trapped in the rising waters. In Ramat Gan, drivers also had to be rescued from their cars on Bernstein Street, near Kfar Hamaccabia.
An elderly resident of the central town of Holon was evacuated from his home after it was flooded.
In southern Israel, the Arugot and Mishmar Hanegev rivers burst their banks, closing Route 90 between the Dead Sea resort area and Kaliyah junction.
Route 65, which runs through Wadi Ara in the north, was closed to traffic on Saturday morning, between Mei Ami and Megiddo junctions. Flooding also closed Route 71, which connects Afula and Beit She'an, along the stretch between Merhavia and Navot junction.
Magen David Adom rescue personnel were placed on alert in the Gilboa region on Saturday.