Police to discuss traffic accidents

Traffic Dept. chief calls emergency meeting after 7 die in weekend accidents.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
jp.services1 (photo credit: )
jp.services1
(photo credit: )
Avi Ben Hamo, head of the Police Traffic Department, initiated an emergency session Saturday overnight, to discuss the recent wave of deadly traffic accidents, Israel Radio reported. Heads of traffic police from every Israeli district and police's top command are expected to be present at the discussion, scheduled for Sunday. Seven people died in a series of accidents over the weekend. On Saturday evening, A 45-year old father and his five-year old daughter were killed when a truck hit their car as they were traveling on Highway 1 on Saturday. Rescue teams managed to save the mother who had been trapped in the car, and evacuated her and the fourth passenger, a young boy, to a nearby hospital. Both were listed in moderate to serious condition. The driver of the truck was found to be a serial traffic offender, with no less than 190 traffic violation on his record. Following the accident, police closed traffic on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem thoroughfare eastward of Lod junction for several hours. In another accident, a 55-year-old man died when he suffered a cardiac arrest while driving. The man was traveling with his wife and son southward on Route 2 and when he suffered the attack he lost control of the vehicle, smashed into a vehicle to his right, then continued and stopped only after crashing into a security railing. The other travelers in the car were unharmed, and medics arriving at the scene established the man's death. Also Saturday evening, a worker at a carwash near Hakfar Hayarok junction was killed when a car slid toward him and hit him. Earlier Saturday, an 82-year-old pedestrian was killed after he was hit by car as he tried to cross the street at Rehovot junction; on Friday evening, Shimrit Hillel, 26, was killed in Tiberias as she was crossing the street near a hospital; and earlier Friday, 30-year-old Abed el Hija Sah was killed when his car flipped over at the entrance to the Arab village of Arava, where he lived.