Construction worker, 40, killed in Hod Hasharon

A 40-year-old construction worker was killed Sunday in the central city of Hod Hasharon.

It brought the number of deaths in worksite accidents since the beginning of 2019 to 29 in construction sites, out of a total of 51.

Magen David Adom paramedics were called to the scene at Ezer Weizman Street, where they found the worker with a severe upper body wound.

Their resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful and they were forced to pronounce him dead.

Police said in a statement that it was investigating the circumstances of the incident and had filed a report with the Labor Ministry.

The latest worksite death before Sunday came last Thursday, when a 35-year-old construction worker was killed in the Lower Galilee. A week earlier, a 20-year-old worker was killed when a forklift overturned.

In June, figures released under freedom-of-information laws showed that police have not opened criminal investigations in 75 percent of job site accidents from 2016 to 2018 that led to deaths or severe injuries for workers.

Police records showed that of 850 worksite accidents during those years in which police were called in, only in 212 did officers open criminal probes. The freedom-of-information request that made the figures public was filed by Kav LaOved, an advocacy group for foreign workers.

According to Kav LaOved, 124 workers died from 2016 to 2018 in 118 deadly accidents at worksites, while 585 accidents resulted in moderate or serious injuries. Nearly all were at construction sites.

The fact that only a quarter of serious workplace accidents are being investigated for criminal culpability means that “the Israel Police apparently believes that most workplace accidents are ‘fate,’ or the fault of the dead and injured,” charged Gadeer Nicola, head of Kav LaOved’s Nazareth branch.

In response to the huge spike in worksite accidents, police established a special unit called Peles at the end of 2018, under the aegis of its serious crimes unit Lahav 433, which specializes in accident investigation. However, the Haaretz daily reported in June, the unit only opened investigations into three of the 38 deadly accidents that occurred in the first five months of 2019.

Police have said the unit is not meant to investigate every accident, but only those “with unique attributes, like complex accidents involving infrastructure collapse, or the sort that require expertise and resources,” according to a police statement to Kav LaOved.