8-year-old among four weekend hit-and-run victims

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Four hit-and-run accidents occurred across the country over the weekend, resulting in serious injuries and several arrests. In Ashdod, an eight-year-old girl was seriously injured after being struck by a vehicle on a beach on Saturday. Magen David Adom paramedics rushed her to the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, where doctors treated her for head injuries. A few hours later, a 50-year-old woman turned herself in at an Ashdod police station and confessed to hitting the girl and driving away. Police investigators located her vehicle, and her license was revoked for 60 days. Officers also impounded her car. In a second incident on Saturday, a 13-year-old boy from the Beduin village of Hura in the Negev was moderately injured after being struck by a vehicle. The driver fled the scene and is still being hunted by police. Early Saturday morning, a hit-and-run was reported outside a night club in Bazra, in the Sharon District. In that incident, a 20-year-old was run over during a brawl. Police apprehended the driver and are seeking a speedy indictment of the 20-year-old suspect. Meanwhile, in Beit Dagan, south of Tel Aviv, a pedestrian in his 30s was seriously injured by a vehicle that fled the scene of the accident on Route 44. A Traffic Police volunteer identified the vehicle involved shortly afterward, and arrested its driver and two passengers. The driver later told police he had been panic-stricken after hitting the pedestrian and that he had left the scene to consult his father. Police placed the three youths under house arrest. Traffic Police spokesman Yigal Habsur told The Jerusalem Post that "there has been no spike in hit-and-runs. This is a coincidental concentration of incidents." Ch.-Supt. Shai Mizrahi, a Traffic Police commander from the Shfela police subdistrict, where the Route 44 accident took place, added that "the high concentration of hit-and-run accidents is misleading. While every accident is severe, I don't see a rise in the numbers. "Past investigations have shown that on several occasions, pedestrians were at fault for the accident, but that drivers nevertheless panicked and fled. Had they not left the scene, they would not have been prosecuted. The maximum sentence for fleeing the scene of an accident is nine years," Mizrahi added.