Passenger train collides with bus in South; 10 hurt

Train slows but still hits bus which rode on to tracks near Nitzan; 10 people lightly injured, evacuated to hospital.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
train 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
train 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Ten people were lightly injured on Friday when an Israel Railways passenger train struck a bus near the entrance to  Nitzan, a communal settlement in the South.
MDA paramedics treated the injured on the scene, evacuating seven of them to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.
An initial police investigation found that the bus was traveling from Nitzan toward the entrance to Route 4 when it drove on to the train tracks and was forced to stop because their was a car preceding it, stopped at a red traffic light, not allowing it to move forward off the tracks. The driver was not able to back up off the tracks in time to avoid the train.
The train conductor was able to slow down considerably, but still struck the bus, causing it to flip over on its side. It was unclear whether the ten injured people were passengers of the bus or the train.
The bus driver was not injured, but was suffering from shock.
Police were continuing to investigate the accident and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz announced Friday that he was establishing a committee to launch a probe into the causes of the accident.