Last update - 00:00 13/09/2007
Five people die in traffic accidents across Israel Thursday
By Mijal Grinberg and Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondents
Five people were killed in two separate car accidents on Thursday.
A 17-year-old Yeruham resident was killed in a car accident outside the city Thursday morning, and four other people were lightly hurt.
An initial probe into the crash indicated that the driver had lost control of the vehicle, crashed into a railing and rolled down into a deep ditch.
Paramedics evacuated the injured passengers to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva for treatment. During the evacuation, one of the passengers attacked a police officer who arrived at the scene. The officer was wounded and also required treatment, Army Radio reported.
Police are investigating suspicions that the five occupants of the vehicle had been under the influence of alcohol, the radio reported.
Later Thursday, four Nazareth residents in their 60s were killed as a vehicle overturned on Highway 90 near Lake Kinneret.
On Wednesday, a woman was seriously injured, a child moderately wounded and ten others lightly hurt in a car accident on Highway 6 in the Sharon region.
Initial police investigations have determined that the driver of one of the vehicles fell asleep at the wheel, lost control of his car and slammed into a car that was parked on the shoulder.
Meanwhile, traffic police on Thursday announced that on Rosh Hashanah eve they issued 140 traffic tickets and confiscated dozens of drivers' licenses after they were caught speeding.