Driver remanded for killing cyclists, suspected of driving under the influence

The driver who killed two cyclists Monday in the Sharon region was named Tuesday as Yonatan Fadida, 29, from Or Akiva, as police said in court there were indications he had been driving under the influence of drugs.

The crash took place near the Hadarim interchange, south of Netanya.

The victims have been named as Yaniv Lugasi, 44, and Tomer Weinstein, 45, both from the nearby community of Kadima-Zoran. Each of them was a father of three.

Fadida sustained minor injuries in the crash and received medical treatment at the scene.

The Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court has remanded him for three days.

A traffic police representative told the judge that in addition to the suspicion that Fadida had been under the influence, he was exceeding the speed limit, and the cyclists had been adhering to traffic rules.

Fadida, in his reenactment of the incident, said he had been on his way to his job at a restaurant when he lost control of the vehicle at a curve. “I tried to brake, I tried to steer away from the cyclists but unfortunately I couldn’t,” he said, denying he had been distracted by his phone.

Fadida’s father told Channel 12 that he was “devastated” and felt like his son “has gone, together with those killed.”

“He went to work, like every morning. We are hurting. My son was never involved in any accidents,” he added.

“It was a group of cyclists on a morning ride on the side of the road,” Roy Solomon, a Zaka medic, told Channel 12 news. “A car struck the safety rail and crashed into two riders aged around 40. When I arrived, there were dozens of bicycle parts scattered across the road, and among them were the two cyclists, unconscious, with serious injuries.”

The deaths brought the number of fatalities on the roads in 2019 so far to 329. Last year 316 people were killed in traffic accidents.