Third soldier from deadly Route 6 crash succumbs to wounds

A third IDF soldier injured in a severe car accident in central Israel last week succumbed to his wounds on Monday, at Tel Hashomer Hospital outside Tel Aviv, the army said.

Shiloh Siman-Tov had been unconscious and hooked up to a respirator since the brutal collision on Route 6 last Wednesday, and he took a turn for the worse four days later.

Two other soldiers were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident at the Nitzane Oz Junction, where three jeeps in a convoy collided with a truck.

Twenty-one-year-old Ashdod resident Ashto Tapso and 19-year-old Kibbutz Netiv Ha’asarah resident Bar Yaakovian were laid to rest last Thursday, in their respective communities.

Nine other soldiers from the Golani combat brigade were lightly injured in the accident as well.

התאונה הקשה בכביש 6, שני החיילים שנהרגו הם מחטיבת גולני: סמל בר יעקוביאן, (צד שמאל) בן 19, מנתיב השיירה, וסמל אשטו טספו, בן 21, מפ"ת. הלוויותיהם יתקיימו היום pic.twitter.com/UVxjHsgKhs

— מוקד החדשות בטוויטר (@nthrprhsni) February 14, 2018

Siman-Tov, 23, was a resident of the northern West Bank settlement of Tzufim. His funeral was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in Petah Tikva.

His cousin, Neria Avodram, said Siman-Tov loved to help others and volunteered a lot, including with children with special needs. “He was not even supposed to be there (at the accident) at all. He was awarded time off, but decided to give the prize to another friend,” Avodram said.

The soldiers were on their way south, after completing training exercises in the country’s north, the army said.

The truck driver who hit the troops, an East Jerusalem resident, is believed to have lost control of the vehicle before veering into the convoy of off-road vehicles as it traveled east of Netanya.

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court ruled last week to extend his remand, citing numerous traffic violations, which he had received in the past.

The driver claimed that the convoy in fact had been in the middle of the road at the time of the collision.