Four Palestinians, among them 6-year-old girl, killed in crash with Israeli bus
Bus passengers unhurt in collision on route 55 in northern West Bank; mayor of nearby settlement claims police misreporting prevents expansion of unsafe road
Four Palestinians, including a six-year-old girl, were killed Monday evening in a frontal collision with a bus in the northern West Bank.
The Palestinians were in a vehicle that crashed into an Israeli passenger bus on the narrow two-way Route 55 near the settlement of Karnei Shomron.
The dead were initially identified as two men, one in his thirties and the other in his fifties, a woman, 30, and the child. A fifth passenger, a 40-year-old Palestinian man, was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
None have yet been named by authorities.
The bus passengers were unhurt, rescuers said.
Karnei Shomron Mayor Yigal Lahav said the road was more dangerous than official statistics suggested, and should be included in the government’s list of dangerous roads whose expansion is prioritized.
“Unfortunately, this is an extension of the tragic gap caused by the inaccurate counting of the number of road accidents and failure to report the reality on the ground by the police — a fact that prevents the paving of a four-lane road with a divider that would protect those who use the road,” Lahav said in a statement Monday evening.
“It’s intolerable. Route 55 should be expanded immediately, and made to fit the landscape and the number of vehicles that use it.”