Driver in deadly bus crash to get 4 years jail in plea deal — report
Haim Bitton accused of manslaughter, unsafe driving after February collision that killed six on Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
A bus driver who plowed into a truck parked on the shoulder of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway in February, killing six people, will likely serve four years in jail as part of a plea bargain, according to a media report Monday.
Driver Haim Bitton was charged in June with manslaughter and a litany of unsafe driving offenses over the crash, which left three children dead among the six fatalities and injured dozens of others.
According to Channel 10, the prosecution will recommend Bitton be jailed for four years for causing the deaths of the six.
The crash occurred when the #402 Egged bus between Jerusalem and B’nei Brak smashed into the truck parked on the shoulder of the highway near the Anabe interchange west of Modiin, shearing off the side of the bus.
The truck driver involved in the fatal February crash had stopped at the side of the road after hearing noises coming from his engine.
“Just as I got out of the truck, the same minute, the bus came and slammed into the rear end,” he told investigators at the time.
The truck driver, from East Jerusalem, was only lightly injured.
Bitton told police that he had not noticed the truck parked on the hard shoulder.
Investigators believed he swerved out of his lane and collided with the truck because he was not paying sufficient attention.
Photos of the 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 of the vehicle, which had been filled to capacity.
Bitton had returned to the driver’s seat only weeks before the crash after Egged had banned him from intercity routes for smashing into and overturning a truck on the same route in 2013. In that earlier incident, several passengers were injured.
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 as follows 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.
