Last update - 00:00 25/08/2007
4 people including 3 family members killed in car crash in N. Israel
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent
Four people, three of them family members, were killed Friday night in a car accident in northern Israel.
The victims have been identified as Lubov and Vladimir Kavanov, both 47, of Netanya, and their son, 22-year-old Andrei Kavanov.
The accident occurred shortly after midnight on highway 70 near Haifa.
The 23-year old driver, Alex Stefanov was not related to the three passengers. According to the police, Stefanov was speeding when he lost control of the vehicle, which turned over. The car was hurled onto the side of the road passing through a ditch and railing and finally hitting a large water pipe.
Large evacuation teams and emergency medical technicians arrived at the scene.
Firefighters from the Jezreel Valley station extricated the bodies from the crushed vehicle and Magen David Adom emergency medical workers pronounced their deaths.
The police have launched an investigation into the incident. An initial probe revealed that the car was likely traveling at an extremely high speed.
15 people were killed over the last week in traffic accidents across the country. 125 car accidents occurred over the last 24 hours, in which four people were killed and 136 were hurt. 280 people have been killed in crashes since the beginning of the year.