Four people were killed in a fatal road accident on Highway 90 on Saturday afternoon when two cars traveling north in the Central Arava Region collided with each other, in what Magen David Adom paramedics described as a "horrific accident."
The accident occurred after a car traveling south swerved unexpectedly and collided with a car traveling in the opposite direction. The reason for it doing so is still under investigation, but it is thought that a truck initially collided with the car traveling south, causing it to veer off route.
They were forced to declare the deaths of three of the vehicle occupants on the scene - a 65-year-old man, a 40-year-old woman and a 13-year-old girl. Shortly afterward, the death of a four-year-old boy was also reported.
The other two people involved in the accident, both men in their 40s, were evacuated by helicopter to Soroka-University Medical Center in Beersheba. Both are reported to be in moderate to serious condition.
In response to the fatal accident, the head of the Central Arava Regional Council, Meir Tzur, called for immediate action to be taken to improve Highway 90 and make it safer.
"In the past decade alone, there have been 234 road accidents on the blood-red Arava Highway 90, in which 462 people were injured, and 33 killed"
Central Arava Regional Council head Meir Tzur
Residents of the Central Arava Region gathered in protest shortly after the accident. They stated that they were raising awareness of "the government's incompetence" over the last few decades and their failure to ensure that Highway 90 is safe for passengers to travel.
Responding to the event on Twitter, Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli said that her "heart was broken for those killed on Highway 90 this morning," and added that the road will soon undergo improvements, with a barrier added between the north-bound and south-bound lanes, something that is currently lacking.
"We will continue to do everything to reduce the number of road accidents," she concluded.