After deadly crash, Bedouin town marks day of mourning

The Bedouin town of Hura declared Wednesday a day of mourning after a deadly bus accident the previous day left eight of its female residents dead.

All schools and local businesses in the southern town were set to be shuttered for the day, a local official told Channel 2.

“It’s a tough atmosphere, this won’t pass easily, it will take a long time to recover,” a relative of one of the victims said.

The eight victims — who were on their way home from prayer services at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem — were slated to be buried on Wednesday afternoon in Hura.

The victims of the crash are: Fatima Abu Alkian, Manwa Abu Alkian, Kafiya el-Usiwa, Issra el-Nabari, Hadra a-Lasid, Noura el-Atrash, Zana Abu Trech, Naama Abu Shachta.

Twenty-eight people were reported injured in the crash.

Investigators believe the collision occurred when a tractor slipped off a truck and into the bus, or scraped along the side of the bus, as the vehicles met on Route 31, near Lehavim junction in the northern Negev. Police suspect one of the two tractors propped on the truck was wider than allowed by regulations.

The drivers of the bus and truck involved in the crash were detained by police Tuesday night seeking to determine if reckless driving caused the collision. The two men will be questioned on suspicion of causing death by negligence.

The truck driver who was transporting the tractors had over 100 traffic violations, the Walla news website reported on Wednesday morning. He was slated to attend a hearing on the extension of his remand at noon.

One of the injured passengers described the scene as “a horror movie,” and said people “were simply ripped apart.”

Local politicians and relatives of victims charged after the accident that the government ignored warnings about the dangerous state of the road.

Eli Levi, head of the Lehavim Regional Council, said that he had warned the Transportation Ministry about the two-lane road hours before the crash.

A man named Ali told Channel 2 Tuesday that several relatives of his were among the dead and injured.

The victims were “murdered,” said Ali, blaming the road’s condition, and the fact that a large truck was allowed to pass through such a narrow lane.

An average of 10 people die every year on the road, according to Channel 2.

“I blame the bus driver, this kind of driver should not be allowed on the road,” a 62-year-old man, whose mother was killed in the accident, told the Ynet news website. “The government is also guilty because we have no infrastructure in the Bedouin villages. We always have catastrophes because of the roads, everyone disregards our lives.”

The head of the transportation company whose bus was involved in the crash said the driver blamed the truck for the accident.

“Crying, the man was crying. He told me there was an accident, many killed, and then hung up,” said the man, identified by Channel 2 only as Nazir.

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.