Last update - 00:00 10/12/2006
Two killed in multi-vehicle crash as truck crushes car in Negev
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent
Four people were killed and at least 15 injured in a number of traffic accidents across Israel on Sunday.
At the Lehavim intersection north of Be'er Sheva, at least two people were killed and a dozen injured when a truck plowed into a car.
At least four other cars driving alongside the truck were damaged in the accident, as well as a bus transporting eighth graders on a school trip to Jerusalem.
According to initial indications, the truck was unable to brake in time as it approached the Lehavim intersection, and ran into a passenger car, crushing it and trapping the two passengers inside the vehicle.
Army radio identified the two as a couple in their fifties.
Rescue forces were working to free the bodies from the wreckage.
Eyewitness Edo Mazor, a resident of the Be'er Sheva suburb of Lehavim, told Haaretz, "the truck came from the Shoket intersection, turned into Lehavim with excessive speed, and hit the car."
"I got out of the car to help the injured," said Mazor, "and the truck driver told me he thought there was a car trapped under his vehicle."
The Magen David Adom rescue service evacuated the injured to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva.
The roads leading to the Lehavim intersection were closed to traffic. Police are investigating the reasons behind the crash.
Two killed in separate driving-related accidents
A 20-year-old motorcyclist was killed on Sunday after he lost control of his bike and crashed into a tree near the city of Afulah in the Jezreel Valley.
Police say the driver did not have a license for the type of motorcycle he was driving.
Also on Sunday, a 50-year-old pedestrian was struck by a car on Bilu streetin Petah Tikvah after a 70-year-old driver lost control of her vehicle and veered on to the sidewalk.