Five people, including three children, died and several people were injured on Wednesday in northern Israel following an accident between a bus and two cars, Israel’s emergency service reported.
Four of one of the cars’ passengers – aged 35, 15, 12, and five – as well as one of the bus’ passengers died, three in a serious condition are being evacuated by helicopters to nearby hospitals.
Magen David Adom emergency service also reported 32 lightly injured.
Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service sent a total of six teams to the scene. “There’s still a person trapped under the bus,” a firefighter on scene said. “Helicopters are landing at the scene to evacuate the injured,” he added.
In addition, the military is sending medical help as well as other forces that assist with evacuation efforts, a statement by IDF confirmed.
The accident occurred on route 89 in the vicinity of the Druze town of Hurfeish and the bus was carrying about 40 people at the time of the incident.
Police closed the road and are rerouting drivers through a nearby road.
According to Or Yarok Association for Safer Driving in Israel, a not-for-profit traffic safety lobbyist organization, 663 car accidents occurred on this road over the past decade, in which 23 poeple were killed and 1,881 were injured.
Erez Kita, Or Yarok’s CEO, wished a speedy recovery to the injured and said that while Israel had seen an uptick in the number of car accidents since the beginning of the year the government has still not allocated the sufficient funds to fight the surge of accidents.
This is a developing story more details soon…
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