Three railway execs to be charged with manslaughter in fatal crash

More than three years after a train crash killed five passengers and injured 80 more, three senior Israel Rail officials will be charged today at the Petah Tikva District Court with criminally negligent manslaughter and criminally negligent injury.

The three are former chief executive of the Israel Rail Company, Ofer Linczewski, deputy operations director Harel Even and former national director of roads and traffic arrangements Yuval Blum.

The crash occured when Yonatan Vaadia's car became stuck on the tracks near Beit Yehoshua in June 2006. Vaadia has already been charged with manslaughter, causing serious injury, drunk driving, negligent driving of a vehicle, usage of dangerous drugs for personal use and procuring a prescription drug without a prescription.

The decision to press charges against the executives was made at the Central District prosecutor's office after a hearing process that lasted for two years. During the hearing, evidence from experts for the defense has been considered, but eventually rejected.

According to the indictment, despite two earlier train crashes, in Revadim and Ahuzam, the rail company failed to carry out an assessment of the risks presented by obstacles at level railway crossings. Consequently, the company also never produced rules or guidelines to prevent such accidents, did not provide interim solutions until permanent solution could be found, did not map out crossings without an early alert system for train operators, and did not resolve poor visibility in other junctions.

The indictment notes that some three months before the accident, the crossing where it occurred was singled out as having "poor visibility due to its topography and tall eucalyptus trees."

Linczewski had requested recommendations to place guards at 37 crossings defined as high-risk. The document produced for him included a recommendation to have a guard at the Beit Yehoshua crossing from 6 A.M. to 10 P.M., but Linczewski only authorized guards at 19 crossings, between 6 A.M. and 10 A.M. and 3 P.M. and 10 P.M., the indictment said.

The Beit Yehoshua accident occurred at 11:56 A.M.