Israel Train Crash Kills 8, Wounds 200

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Tel Aviv----June 22......As Israel was enjoying the heat of a quiet summer's day, only two things on were on people's minds. The upcoming disengagement from Gaza and air-conditioning. Then the news appeared, first on radio, then the Internet and then on TV as we heard that a train had plowed into a truck loaded with chickens. Israel is a country which has been traumatized by Islamic terror attacks, so another car or train accident would not really stop us in our stride. But as the minutes grew and with everyone carrying mobile phones, Israel quickly realized that it had just been struck by a major train disaster.

Eight people were killed and over 200 injured when a passenger train from Haifa hurtled at full speed into a coal truck in Israel. Dozens of passengers were thrown from somersaulting passenger cars in the accident. Five people were pronounced dead at the scene and two others died later at hospitals.

A total of 215 people were injured, several of them critically - including a baby and a 19-year-old female soldier. Officials repeated several times that today's tragedy was an accident, not a terror attack. The massive truck the train hit weighed about 40 tons. Army Radio said the driver had been working for 30 hours straight.

Police said that the trucking company, Eliahu Brothers, had been under criminal investigation in the past for having its drivers work 30 to 40 consecutive hours – way over the 12-hour maximum time permitted by law.

The Israel passenger train, carrying 300 to 400 people from Tel Aviv to the southern Negev desert city of Beersheba, was traveling as fast as 80 mph when it hit the coal delivery truck at about 6 p.m.

"It didn't get stuck. He was just trying to cross and the train failed to stop. There was an explosion and everything was flying into the air," said witness Zuhar Shehadi, a truck driver from Nazareth. "It wasn't an attack. It was worse than an attack. People were flying. People were murdered. Screams and fire." According to witnesses, the locomotive, which also carries passengers, dragged the truck for about 200 meters down the track until it toppled over, broke away from the rest of the train and began wildly flipping over and over. Passengers were flung out as the carriage broke apart, spewing wreckage as it plowed into a field of sunflowers.

Israel Defense Forces rescue units and IDF helicopters were on the scene within one hour evacuating the wounded to nearby hospitals.

In the aftermath of the rail disaster near Kibbutz Revadim, a major inquiry is now being conducted by the Israel Transit Authority into the exact conditions of the accident.

The mangled cars were strewn around a sunflower field, far from main Israel roads and cities. Dozens of passengers were thrown from the somersaulting cars. "It's a horrible sight. It looks like a terror attack," said Dudi Greenwald, a medic who called Israel Radio from the scene. "One of the railroad cars is upside down, and it's impossible to tell what's inside." The coal truck the train hit weighed about 40 tons.

Lachish district police officials are reporting they are confident the southern Israel train crash was not a terror attack, but more likely an accident due to human error. It is now being reported that the truck involved in the crash worked with Israel Railways in some capacity, and apparently, the train’s operator should have been familiar with the truck’s route as he attempted to cross the tracks in the area.

According to Yossi Mor, CEO of Israel Railways, every train in the country's fleet, including the one involved in the accident, is equipped with a recording device, similar to a black box on airplanes. After the recorded data is analyzed, more information as to the conditions of the accident may reveal more information on what caused the train-truck collision.

What is known is that the crash occurred at an unmarked intersection. The truck driver did not stop at the intersection despite warning signs, Mor told Israel Radio. The train conductor followed protocol by blowing his horn 650 meters before the unmarked crossing and applying the brakes 160 meters before impact, he said.

The truck driver not only ignored the stop sign but also the extra large caution signs, that were placed on the roads at the request of train conductors. However, some believe that the responsibility for Tuesday's accident does not lie solely with the truck driver.

Gadi Weissman, an engineer, told Israel Radio that given the high speeds at which the latest Israeli trains travel, it was impossible for the truck to avoid impact. He pointed out that at 40 meters a second, the truck driver had only four seconds to process the fact of the oncoming train and act to stop the crash. This is too much responsibility to put on one driver, said Weissman.

He suggested that informal crossings be made safer with both a traffic light and an audible signal that a train is passing. This will alert the drivers and take the guesswork out of intersection crossing. The fact that Israel Railways has placed large caution signs in the crossways proves they know how dangerous the situation is, said Weissman. However, Mor of Israel Railways still put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Israel's truck drivers. "We have done and will do much more but the problem is the education of the truck drivers and their driving, not only with regard to informal intersections but throughout the country's roads," he said.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Tuesday's crash rose to eight after a 19-year-old IDF solider, Sergeant Adi Amano from Beersheba, who was critically injured in the accident, died of her wounds at the Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot overnight. A non-commissioned military officer, 28, from Beersheba, who had been listed as missing, was located on Wednesday morning at Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein-Karem Hospital. She was reported to be in moderate-to-serious condition.

Other names that have been released for publication: truck driver Leonid Galinski, 51, from Dimona, train conductor Leonid Turk, 46, from Ramle, First Sargeant Nir Sarusi, 33, Rabbi Yossef Dremer, 58, from Kiryat Gat, Olga Akmayov, 20, from Kiryat Gat; Olga's nine-month-old baby is hospitalized in serious condition at Tel Hashomer Hospital near Tel Aviv.

Of the 215 who had been injured in the accident, 113 were still hospitalized on Wednesday morning: 14 of them were listed in serious condition. Eight of the wounded have yet to be identified, five of which are hospitalized in Hadassah Ein Karem and three of which are being treated in Tel Hashomer.

The Bayit Leumi (National Home) organization has confirmed that the nationwide anti-disengagement protests scheduled for this evening have been postponed. The stated reason: last night's train crash in the northern Negev. The road-blockings will be held next Wednesday afternoon, organizers said. Bayit Leumi stated that it has learned with regret that the plans for this evening have been canceled. "The State of Israel is on a train flying towards a catastrophe that is many times greater than [yesterday's] crash," the statement said.

"The road-blockers are acting to save it from this catastrophe, and therefore [we] see no reason for the road-blocking plans to be canceled. We are not the organizers, however." Despite the announcement, authorities said that Israel Police is ready for anything and has learned the lessons of previous protest days. Helicopters and others special deployment steps will be utilized to prevent road closures around the country.

Train crashes are rare in Israel which has recently begun to expand its railway network.