Terror attack ruled out in Tel Aviv car crash
Collision around an hour before US President Trump landed in Israel caused temporary security jitters
A man driving without a license hit a bicyclist, a man on a motor scooter and a pedestrian, injuring them to varying degrees, in central Tel Aviv on Monday, officials said.
The police later said they ruled out the possibility that the event was a terror attack, determining it to be a car accident.
The driver of the silver Mazda first hit the cyclist, then sped on into the scooter and finally hit a woman on the sidewalk before coming to a halt.
The driver, a 29-year-old Jaffa resident, was detained at the scene for questioning. When it was determined that he had been driving without a license, he was placed under arrest, a police spokesperson added.
According to eyewitnesses, the driver tried to flee the scene after the accident, but bystanders kept him from getting away.
The incident occurred at approximately 11:30 a.m., at the corner of Jaffa Road and Nahalat Binyamin, on the northern border of Tel Aviv’s Florentin neighborhood.
According to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, the bicyclist was moderately injured, suffering “head, chest and limb injuries.” He was identified as a 26-year-old man. Medics took him to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital.
The scooter driver and pedestrian — a 40-year-old man and 50-year-old woman, respectively — sustained light injuries. They were taken to Wolfson Hospital, in Holon, south of Tel Aviv.
The accident took place approximately an hour before US President Donald Trump was due to land at Ben Gurion International Airport.
The timing, along with the fact that the driver of the vehicle was Arab, initially raised concerns that the accident was a terror attack. However, by 11:45 police said they believed it was a car accident.
