Posted on 06/12/2006 7:00:20 AM PDT by Alouette
Five people were killed and 75 injured in a train derailment on Monday at the Beit Yehoshua Junction between Herzliya and Netanya.
The wreck was apparently caused when the driver of an Isuzu 4X4 truck, who had stopped at a red light and was waiting to cross the tracks, was rear-ended by another vehicle. The Isuzu was forced forward into the path of the 300-ton train, which was traveling at full speed. Four of the train's carriages overturned as a result of the collision, trapping eight people.
All eight people have been evacuated from the train.
Seconds before the impact the van driver was rescued by another motorist. Police were searching for the driver who caused the accident, who fled the scene.
The train pushed the car a few hundred meters until it disintegrated. At that point the train derailed some one hundred meters from the crossing, the carriages came off the rails and piled on top of each other.
Magen David Adom ambulances, along with the IAF's elite 669 rescue unit, scrambled to the scene and provided initial treatment. Sixty-three people were evacuated to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera, Laniado Hospital in Netanya, and Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba.
Haim Portnoi, an eyewitness traveling in the second carriage at the time of athe accident, told The Jerusalem Post, "After the initial impact I was enveloped in dust, I held on very tight until the carriage stopped moving. It was on its side. I saw some people bleeding and I helped others to get out through the window.
"Rescue services arrived within 10 minutes," he said.
Emergency phone line for Hillel Yaffe: 1-255-126
Emergency phone line for Laniado Hospital: 1-255-191
Emergency phone line for Meir Hospital: 1-255-199
CEO of Israel Railways, Ofer Linchezski, said that an initial investigation conducted by the company revealed that no inspector was present at the accident site when the crash occurred, but that at that crossing there is an inspector present only at peak hours. The time at which the accident occurred was not during rush hour, so the inspector had finished work at 10:00.
Linchezski said that the accident could have been averted had an inspector been present.
Linchezski added that the crossing was considered to be one of the 24 most dangerous in the country and that Beit Yehoshua Junction was one of 31 nationwide that had been approved for renovations that would raise the tracks above the road.
He confirmed the initial report that Israel Railways management had received that a car was stuck on a track moments before the accident occurred, but without enough time to alert the train driver, who escaped with light injuries.
Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz issued a statement that he would immediately pull together a team of investigators to look into the cause of the accident. The committee was due to be headed by General Yossi Peled (Res.) and would also include representatives from the police force, as well as Professor David Mahalal, head of Haifa Technion's transportation research department, said the statement.
As a result of the accident, heavy traffic was reported on the Coastal Highway.
In June 2005, eight people were killed and 190 injured in a similar crash between a train and a truck near Kibbutz Revadim.
Ruth Eglash contributed to this report.
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Seconds before the impact the van driver was rescued by another motorist. Police were searching for the driver who caused the accident, who fled the scene.
Hamas.
You may be correct that it is Hamas (or some other terrorist bunch), but this would appear to be a new M. O. for them.
That's terrible. You know, we had a string of train derailments here in the US, last year. I was starting to wonder if it was something more than idiocy, or bad luck.
I hope the survivors pull through.
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