6 killed over weekend in collisions

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Six people were killed over the weekend in a series of collisions - in at least two of which, teenage drivers' choices resulted in the deaths of their friends. 17-year-old Tarik Abu Kaif was killed when the vehicle in which he was riding flipped over on Route 60 between Shoket Junction and Beersheba on Friday evening. Abu Kaif's friend, also 17, was driving the vehicle, and was hospitalized in moderate condition at Beersheba's Soroka Medical Center. Police were examining whether the driver was using a license and identification papers that belonged to his older brother in order to evade house arrest to which he had been previously sentenced. Less than one day earlier, two 17-year-olds from the seaside community of Atlit were killed and another two were injured in a collision at the southern entrance to Haifa. According to police, Yossi Ben-Naim and Sa'ar Asraf were killed overnight Thursday when the car in which they were traveling overturned, and the two - who were not wearing seat belts - were ejected from the vehicle. The driver and the front seat passenger were both wearing seat belts and, despite the fact that the vehicle overturned, sustained only light injuries. The three people traveling in the other car involved in the collision were also lightly injured. Police said that the 17-year-old driver, who had had his license for a mere seven months, had tried to pass a second vehicle also traveling northward on the coastal road. But instead of merging back into the lane, he clipped the front of the second car, losing control of his vehicle and slamming into the barrier separating the lanes from the oncoming traffic. The force of the second collision flipped the teenager's vehicle on to its roof, and Asraf and Ben-Naim, sitting in the back seat, were thrown out of the car. Police were examining whether speed was a factor in the incident and whether the teenage driver violated the terms of his provisional license, which forbids new drivers from driving without an adult in the vehicle, and carrying more than two passengers. Early Saturday morning, 25-year-old Yulia Sergaiev was killed after she was struck by a car while walking with her sister and two friends on Haifa's Rehov Bar-Yehuda close to the Paz Bridge. The driver fled the scene of the accident, leaving Sergaiev dead by the side of the road. Only on Saturday afternoon did the driver, a 27-year-old Haifa resident, turn himself in after announcements were broadcast asking the public's assistance in finding the owner of the white car that had struck the group of young women. Later Saturday, a motorcyclist in his forties was killed near Beit Shemesh when his bike slammed into the safety barrier on the side of the road. Police said that an initial investigation indicated that the motorcyclist lost control of his bike seconds prior to the collision. Another motorist, 61, was killed in an accident near Beit She'an.