Ultra-Orthodox man kills himself on Miami turnpike

A 26-year-old Orthodox Jewish man kills himself by driving the wrong way on the Florida Turnpike days after saying on Facebook that he had already tried to do so.

Tzvi Yeheskel Ference of Miami Beach was killed Sunday night when his car driving north collided head-on with a tractor trailer in the southbound lanes of the Florida Turnpike. He was not wearing a seatbelt and died at the scene, the Florida Sun-Sentinel reports, citing the state’s Highway Patrol. The other driver and his passenger were not injured.

In a February 19 post on his Facebook page, where he was very open about his battle with depression, Ference wrote that two days earlier he had headed to the turnpike in order to kill himself by driving in the wrong direction but aborted the plan after saying the prayer “Shema Yisrael.”

— JTA