Doctors fighting for lives of two teens hurt in Eilat boating crash
Tuesday collision spurs calls for police, public officials to crack down on dangerous overcrowding off Eilat shore.
By Haaretz Service Tags: EilatDoctors on Wednesday were fighting for the lives of two youths, aged 14 and 15, who were seriously injured in a Tuesday boating collision off the Eilat shore, spurring calls for police and public officials to crack down on dangerous overcrowding and operation of pleasure craft.
The Gan Yavne teens, identified as Lidor Aboudi and Omri Amar, were injured when a motorboat towing a water-skier collided with a boat and the towed innertube on which the boys and several others were riding.
Police said Wednesday that both boat drivers appeared to be at fault in the accident and are suspected of serious negligence. The driver of the ski boat along with a number of passengers were all looking to the rear, at a skier, when the craft plowed into the other boat and the innertube.
"We're fighting for the lives of both of the youths," Tzachi Ben-Zion deputy director of the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, said Wednesday morning.
"The younger of the two has a compression fracture of the skull, the meaning of which is that he had the boat inside his head, which pushed the skull into the brain very seriously," Ben-Zion told Israel Radio.
"The older boy, the 15-year-old, sustained both bodily and cranial injuries. He had a severe blow to the chest, and underwent surgery overnight for the injuries to his head and body. He has very serious fractures of the ribs, as well as fractures of the spine."
Two other youths were hurt in the accident, but were released from the hospital on Tuesday.
Doron Heller, director of the Eilat marina, said that the problem of overcrowding of pleasure craft has existed for years in the sea off Eilat beaches, but that public officials have done nothing to address the dangers and correct the problem.
"Every time an accident like this happens, once every year or two, the same questions arise, but afterwards, things go on as before."
The two boats, which crashed at around 5 P.M. yesterday, were about 500 meters from the coast, in an area designated for water sports.
Witnesses said the four Gan Yavne youths were riding the inner tube and crashed into the water-skiing boat, which had one rider. They said one of the boats failed to obey regulations by making way for the other boat, though it was not immediately clear which boat had the right of way.
"One of the boats cut into the boat lane of the other boat," said police officer Eitan Gadesi. "As far as we know at this stage, both boaters have legal boating licenses, and the boats were found to have observation posts, as required by law."
Dan Hadar, who was riding on the inner tube, blamed the water-skiing boat, saying it collided with the rope connecting the inner tube to the boat.
"We're stunned by what took place," said Shuki Abu of Eilat, the owner of the water-sports club that owns the boat the Gan Yavne boys were using. He said the person guiding the boat has two years' experience.
"We were here at the stand, and suddenly a boat came with the injured on it. We went over to take care of them. I was very agitated. I saw two children lying down unconscious and I didn't know what happened with them," he said.
"Fortunately, we have people here who knew how to take care of them and revive them until the ambulances came. We got through the entire summer peacefully. The children come here to enjoy themselves, and look at how it ended."
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
Is it really necessary to publish the ravings of sad, stupid people like Hannah? She grooves on hatred. Good, that is her right and he hope she derives much satisfaction from it in her otherwise miserable life. But why should the unsuspecting reader, looking for the facts and the background of what any decent person would call a tragedy, have to confront it.
As these two zionist pleasure-seeking boys are being ministered the best of zionist health care, a five-year-old Palestinian girl's case for life is being heard in so-called Israel's supreme court. Here's the situation: Maria Amir's mother and brother were killed by an zionist attack on their home; she was rendered a parapalegic, totally dependent upon machinery and skilled technicians for breathe itself. She has been cared for in an Israeli hospital because there are no such facilities in either the West Bank or Gaza (guess why not). The Department of Defense (what?) has sued to have this five-year-old removed from so-called Israel, in which case, she will undoubtedly die. Thank G-d for the media, in this case the BBC, for making the cruelty and evil of the zionist regime clear to the entire world. There are many things which I despise and loathe about the zionist regime: today, their hypocrisy ranks first on my list. Regards to all of you who care about justice and human decency.
I don't give a damn about these zionist kids, injured through their never-ending quest for 'fun' on stolen Palestinian lands/water when, on the same day, two much-younger Palestinian children were assassinated by the IDF. Shed your selective and croccodile tears somewhere else!
Pals not choosen people.
Much luckier than the two Palestinian boys that had their brains blown out yesterday by the IDF.
The Medical Director reporting details of the injury, and also the translator, may not have been experts in the Queen's English, but their meaning and intention were clear enough for any concerned reader. The blow of the boat had dented into the skull, and pushed the bone into the soft brain tissue beneath. Hardly a matter for semantic bandying.
Allow me to quote Doron Heller, director of the Eilat marina: "Every time an accident like this happens, once every year or two, the same questions arise, but afterwards, things go on as before." .... public officials have done nothing to address the dangers and correct the problem.
you published my talkbacks but subheader still reads: Doctors fighting for lives of two teens hurt in Eilat boating crash Tuesday collision spurs calls spurring calls for crackdown on dangerous overcrowding off Eilat shore. 11:32 and article still says "boat inside his head"
"the meaning of which is that he had the boat inside his head.." Can someone explain this please? How can a boat be inside his head? Maybe "the boat side hitting his head"?
subheader reads: Tuesday collision spurs calls spurring calls for crackdown on dangerous overcrowding off Eilat shore
the children are Jews, not Pals.