Family steps forward to claim one-year-old car crash survivor

The mystery surrounding a one-year-old infant who was the lone survivor of an accident that killed three people Sunday night was solved Tuesday, when the baby boy’s grandfather came forward to claim him.

Welfare authorities had planned to transfer the child to foster care as no one had claimed him and his relatives had yet to be located.

The casualties of the accident were members of the same family, but the injured infant was not originally identified as a family member.

On Tuesday, the boy’s grandfather told journalists that the baby would be cared for by his grandparents or by his uncle, and that the family had been unable to contact the hospital because it was too busy arranging funerals for those killed in the accident.

The three fatalities, a man, a woman and a 5-year-old child, were killed when a tractor driver allegedly ignored a right-of-way sign on Route 65, near Megiddo, and crashed into their jeep.

Police suspect the tractor driver didn’t give the oncoming car the right of way. He was arrested overnight Sunday on suspicion of negligent homicide, after receiving medical treatment for his wounds.

On Monday, the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court identified the driver as Saif Saidi, 22, of Umm al-Ghanim, and remanded him for a further three days.