Police on Thursday recommended that the director general of Israel Railways, Ofer Linczewski, stand trial for causing death by negligence, over his role in a train collision near Beit Yehoshua last year that left five dead and 77 wounded.

Police also recommended trying Israel Railways Deputy Director General Harel Evan, as well as Yonatan Vadya, the driver of the vehicle suspected of causing the collision.

Vadya was found to have been under the influence of drugs at the time. He escaped from the crash unharmed.

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The findings of the inquiry into the accident unearthed many flaws in the Israel Railways safety procedures.

Less than two hours before the accident, an Israel Railways lookout left the crash site due to light train activity at that time of day, the railway has said. The site is one of Israel Railways' most active areas, with 300 trains passing through daily.

Linczewski told police that the procedures were in place long before he became director general, and investigators attempted to find out which regulations he may have altered and whether he knew about existing flaws but failed to do anything to fix them.

By the later stages of the investigation, the police and prosecution found that there were many safety flaws at Israel Railways that contributed to the Beit Yehoshua crash, and that Linczewski and other senior railway officials did not do enough to prevent the accident.

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