A Taibeh resident was indicted in Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Tuesday for killing a married couple in an incoming car after he drove through a red light at a junction in the Sharon region in March.

Menachem and Nina Wisler were driving with their three children away from their home in Tzur Yigal when their Mazda was hit by the jeep driven by 49-year-old Awni Jabara. The parents were killed in the crash and their three children injured.

Jabara sustained moderate injuries in the collision.

	Advertisement

According to the indictment, the light had already been on red for at least seven seconds when Jabara arrived at the junction, but he ignored it and carried on driving. At the center of the junction, Jabara hit the Wisler family car, whose traffic light had been green.

As a result of the collision, the Wislers' car was thrown into the air and landed on a traffic island. The parents were killed on the spot, and the youngest child, aged five and a half, was seriously hurt.

"Due to the actions described above, the driver is charged with recklessness and negligence and a lack of awareness of the unreasonable peril to road users, which as a result of those actions caused the deaths of those killed and harm to three children," wrote prosecutor Meirav Amar in the indictment.

Following the accident, Jabara's brother told Haaretz that, "what happened is a major tragedy for us all, and we share the sorrow of the bereaved family. It is true that there are crazy people on the roads, but my brother is not one of them. He is a considerate man, calm and without any road violations. They are targeting us because we are from the [Arab] sector, and it is easy to blame us."