Last update - 00:00 11/08/2007
Six people killed in five separate traffic accidents over weekend
Five people were killed in four separate traffic accidents over the weekend.
A father and son were killed Saturday afternoon in a road accident on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Highway, near the Ben Shemen interchange. The mother of the family and the second son were seriously wounded in the accident.
The initial investigation revealed that a Volvo truck hit the family's vehicle, trapping the Daewoo car beneath its weight and crushing its passengers. The father of the family and the 5-year-old son were killed. The mother and 11-year-old son were hospitalized in Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer in serious condition.
The license of the truck drives was revoked, and police are expected Sunday to ask for the extension of his remand. The driver has 190 previous traffic violations.
Three other people were killed in three separate traffic accidents in northern Israel over the weekend.
A 80-year-old pedestrian was killed Saturday morning in Ramat Gan when hit by a car. The car's drives was detained for questioning.
A 20-year-old man was killed when his vehicle overturned between Sakhnin and Arabeh in the Galilee.
Earlier Friday, a 23-year-old pedestrian was killed when she was hit by a car in Tiberias.
Traffic Police investigators said the vehicle that hit the woman was rear-ended by another car as it slowed to take a left turn, and as a result was pushed into the woman. The driver of the vehicle that was struck suffered light injuries.
A Magen David Adom emergency medical team evacuated the pedestrian to Poriya Hospital in Tiberias, but she succumbed to her wounds.
In an accident Saturday afternoon on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Highway, a father, 45, and his 5-year-old daughter were killed. The mother, 39, and 6-year-old son were injured when a Volvo truck hit and crushed their Mitsubishi car, trapping the occupants.
Rescue crews removed the casualties and evacuated the mother and son to Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, with serious and light injuries, respectively.
Police closed down the highway from the Lod interchange, snarling traffic headed toward the capital.
The truck driver, a 55-year-old East Jerusalem resident, was arrested after preliminary questioning revealed he had 190 prior traffic convictions. He was in shock and had difficulty at first communicating with the investigators, but later claimed that the car had braked suddenly.
According to other accounts, the truckdriver had failed to maintain a safe distance from the car ahead. He will be brought this morning for a remand-extension hearing at Rishon Letzion Magistrate's Court.
"There is no other way to describe what we witnessed: It is simply terror on the road," said firefighter Guy Mensharov, who commanded the rescue and recovery operation at the scene of the accident near the Ben Shemen interchange.
"The spectacle we saw as we began to try to get the bodies out was among the worst I've seen in my life. We firefighters, who ordinarily shift gears mentally in these incidents, could not take it, and there were some who shed tears."
The condition the bodies were in made it difficult for investigators to make a positive identification, and the names were therefore not released for publication Saturday night.
However, about two hours after the accident, police contacted relatives to inform them of the crash. The family, from Holon, had been on its way to visit relatives in Jerusalem.
Earlier Saturday, an 82-year-old pedestrian was killed by a car on Aluf Sadeh street in Ramat Gan. The driver, 20, was lightly injured and taken to Sheba hospital.
In another accident, a 41-year-old worker at a carwash near Ramat Hasharon was killed Saturday afternoon by a rolling car. A Tel Aviv man, 57, who brought his car to be washed at a gas station at the Kfar Hayarok intersection ran over the worker while trying to move the car. The worker was taken to Beilinson Hospital in critical condition and died there.
Shimrit Hillel, 23, from Moshav Hazor'im in the Lower Galilee was killed when two cars collided along Route 768 at the entrance to the industrial zone of Upper Tiberias. One car slowed down to make a turn and was rammed from behind by another car, which then veered off the road from the force of the impact and hit a woman who had finished crossing the road. The driver of the first car was lightly injured. An ambulance team evacuated the pedestrian in critical condition to Poriya Hospital, but she died a short while later.
Elsewhere in the north, a 20-year-old man from the Galilee village of Arabeh was killed Friday evening when his car overturned on the road between Sakhnin and Arabeh. Eyewitnesses reported a tire blowout, which caused the car to veer off the road at a sharp turn and crash into rocks along the shoulder. A passenger, 21, was taken to Western Galilee Hospital in moderate condition.