Son kills mother with tractor as 8 die in road accidents

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
Eight people were killed over the weekend in vehicle-related accidents, with the last a mother who was run over by her son after the two went to milk the family's cows. On Friday evening, Smadar Feldman, 45, was killed by a tractor driven by her 17-year-old son on a dirt path leading to the cowsheds on Moshav Beit She'arim in the Lower Galilee. The two had gone to milk the family's cows, and separated when the mother went home to prepare dinner. Police said it appeared the youth struck his mother by accident, and that he may not have been able to see her because the path was dark. The carnage on the roads began late Thursday evening when two young women were killed as they made their way home from a family member's wedding. The crash occurred on Route 42, between Yavne and the Ashdod Junction, when a car approaching from the north swerved out of its lane and crashed head-on into an oncoming vehicle. Two passengers in the northbound vehicle, both women in their twenties, were killed. Three youths were critically injured. The driver of the car that swerved from its lane was moderately injured, and police said Friday they suspected he was driving under the influence of alcohol. Also late Thursday night, 22-year-old Shahar Bells of Petah Tikva was fatally injured when he lost control of his vehicle on Rehov Rabbi Malcha in the Sharon-area city. His car crashed into a separation barrier and then overturned. Bells was rushed to the city's Beilinson Medical Center in critical condition. He died there early Friday morning. Also early Friday morning, 30-year-old Yigal Buskila was killed in a head-on collision just outside of Yeruham. Buskila was a passenger in a vehicle that swerved out of its lane in a no-passing zone and struck an oncoming vehicle. The drivers of the two vehicles were hospitalized in moderate condition in Beersheba's Soroka Medical Center. Shortly thereafter, Negev police and rescue teams were scrambled to an even larger collision on Route 40 between the Sarah and Ohalim junctions that left several people trapped in the three vehicles involved. The accident occurred when a jeep swerved out of its lane and hit an oncoming commercial vehicle. The jeep flipped over into the opposite lanes, and a car slammed headfirst into the jeep's side. The driver of the car, as well as the driver and passenger in the jeep, Salame Jahamen, 46, and Lamah Tarabin, 24, both of Segev Shalom, were killed in the crash. Police said Saturday they were having trouble locating the family of the driver of the car, who was from the North.