The incident happened on Highway 40 in central Israel.
Four people have been killed after a bus overturned in a road accident on Sunday evening near Bedek Junction on Highway 40, close to Ben Gurion Airport in central Israel.
The bus was an Egged 947 line travelling from Jerusalem to Haifa.
The driver, who suffered medium, injuries, is being questioned while staying at the hospital. With one of the investigators claming that “There should be no reason the bus should have gone that way.”
United Hatzalah volunteer Niv Hershko stated from the scene that, “Unfortunately, one man and three women have been pronounced dead after their bodies were extricated from the bus by firefighters.” The bodies have been transferred to the Abu Kabir institute for identification and burial.
Police officer Hai Mizrahi of the Traffic Division of the Central District said that, “At this stage it is too early to say what caused the accident, we are in the initial stages of an investigation. Apparently, and according to preliminary findings, the bus driver lost control, as a result of which he hit the bus stop. ”
Additionally, around 20 other passengers were reported injured, two of them in serious condition.
Among them, an elderly woman and a young woman were evacuated to Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer in serious condition.
Of those in more moderate condition, six were evacuated to Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center, four were evacuated to Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva and two to the Sharon Hospital, also in Petah Tikva.
The bus was carrying roughly 25 passengers.
Several United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs reported from the scene: “Due to the severity of the accident firefighters were working to extricate people from the bus. According to witnesses, the bus crashed into a bus stop and the cement pole next to the bus stop fell on top of the bus crushing part of it. When we arrived, we treated 12 people, some of whom were in serious and critical condition.”
Transport Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke after the incident, saying, “It is too early to draw conclusions, but an analysis of all fatal accidents in recent times raises one common denominator: driver error.”
“I beg – leave all the distractions and concentrate 100% on driving!” Smotrich also said.
The Organization of Israeli Bus Drivers afterwards accused the Ministry of Transport of having caused the accident due to continuous driving by drivers on the Jerusalem-Haifa line. The organization said that “uninterrupted driving and without refreshment stations is a ticking bomb.
We urge the Minister of Transport to adopt the conclusions of the Organization of Israeli Bus Drivers and do everything so that such shocking accidents are not part of us.”
In a separate accident on Sunday evening, two men aged 23 and 60 were moderately injured in a car accident between two private vehicles in Haifa.
MDA paramedics provided medical treatment at the scene before they were taken to Rambam Hospital in the city.
Earlier on Sunday two people were killed and five others were injured in a car accident between a truck and minibus on Route 4 in Ramat Gan on Sunday.
Two of those injured in Ramat Gan are in serious condition. The other three injured are lightly to moderately injured.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post