Official says state ignored warnings about deadly stretch of road

Local politicians and relatives of victims said Tuesday that a deadly accident on a notorious stretch of road in Israel’s south could have been prevented, charging that the government ignored warnings about the road’s conditions.

Eight people were killed and some 28 more injured after a tractor slipped off a truck and into a bus carrying Bedouin women back from Jerusalem.

Eli Levi, head of the Lehavim Regional Council, said that he had warned the Transportation Ministry about the two-lane road that very morning.

“For years we have been saying that the volume of traffic there is four times the projection. The transportation minister knew about it. There is a tender and everything and the Transportation Ministry decided that its not important right now. They’ve delayed us for five years and now an accident happened,” he said.

Rahat Mayor Talal al-Karnawi said the stretch of road had claimed many victims over the years.

An average of 10 people die every year on the road, according to Channel 2.

Karnawi said that the victims were from communities around Rahat. “This was an organized trip of people who travel weekly to Jerusalem to pray.”

Speaking on Channel 2, a man named Ali said several relatives of his were among the dead and injured.

The victims were “murdered,” said Ali, blaming the road’s condition, and the fact that a large truck was allowed to pass through such a narrow lane.

Police were still investigating the cause of the accident Tuesday evening.

“The result of the accident is extremely difficult. We are still investigating and will continue to investigate the cause,” said Yoram Halevy, Israel Police Southern District Commander, according to the Mako news site. “The scene is very hard to look at, this is a tragic accident and difficult in every way.”

The head of the transportation company whose bus was involved in the crash said the driver blamed the truck for the accident.

“Crying, the man was crying. He told me there was an accident, many killed, and then hung up,” said the man, identified by Channel 2 only as Nazir.

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The Lehavim junction lies at the meeting point of Route 40 that runs from Kiryat Gat to Beersheba, the largest city in the south of Israel, and Route 31 that comes from up from the Dead Sea area in the east.

Stuart Winer and Jonathan Beck contributed to this report.