Bus driver implicated in fatal highway crash put under house arrest
Haim Bitton agrees to be monitored by his mother while police probe collision on Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway that killed 6
A Jerusalem court on Wednesday released to house arrest a bus driver involved in a fatal accident on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, pending an investigation into the Sunday crash that killed six people and injured a dozen others.
Haim Bitton, 40, is suspected of obstruction of justice and negligent homicide, police said after a preliminary investigation indicated he tampered with evidence immediately following the crash.
“There is a reasonable suspicion that the defendant’s actions caused the terrible accident by failing to keep a safe distance from the truck broken down on the side of the road,” the judge said during the hearing, according to the ultra-Orthodox news site Kikar Hashabat.
Bitton was released from police custody to his home after posting NIS 7,000 ($1,800) bail and also paying a NIS 10,000 ($2,560) deposit as a personal guarantee of his future appearance in court, and relinquishing his passport to police.
The terms of his release also state that Bitton will be monitored by his mother while confined to his home.
Bitton is expected to be indicted for his role in the crash in the coming days, the report said.
Investigators suspect that immediately after the crash, Bitton tampered with the vehicle’s tachograph, a device installed in public buses to monitor the driver’s speed — similar to an airplane’s black box.
Police officer Moshe Cohen said Monday that Bitton admitted to investigators at the scene that he had removed and reinserted the disk from the tachograph in the moments after the crash.
He said that Bitton was only arrested 40 minutes after the collision, and during that time made several phone calls.
Bitton crashed on the same route in 2013, also smashing into a truck and overturning the vehicle on the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv artery. Several passengers were injured in that incident, after which the Egged bus company banned him from intercity routes. The ban was only lifted a few weeks ago and he was permitted to drive the Jerusalem to Tel Aviv line once again, Channel 2 reported.
Photos of Sunday’s collision showed the right side of the bus wrenched apart. Channel 2 reported that a crane on the truck ripped the bus open, injuring and killing passengers seated on the right side.
Bitton told police Sunday that he didn’t notice the truck stopped on the side of the highway, and investigators believe the bus driver, through lack of attention, had swerved out of his lane and collided with the truck parked on the side of the road.
The truck driver told police investigators he heard noises coming from his engine, so he stopped on the right shoulder of the highway. “Just as I got out of the truck, the same minute, the bus came and slammed into the rear end.”
The driver of the truck, a resident of East Jerusalem, suffered light injuries and was questioned by police.
The bus, the 402 line from Jerusalem to Bnei Brak, was filled to capacity at the time of the collision, according to Channel 2.
A regular passenger on the 402 line who was familiar with the driver said he was often reckless and claimed he frequently broke safety codes. The passenger cited excessive speed, a failure to maintain a safe distance from other vehicles, and a failure to stay focused on the road. The passenger said an accident like Sunday’s was merely a matter of time.
The victims of the crash were named on Monday as Yaakov Cheshin, 27; Yisrael Weinberg, 26; Hanna Pesha Frankel, 23; Levy Yitzchak Amedadi, 17; and Aharon Mordechai and Leah Malamud, two children whose ages were not authorized for publication.
