Woman convicted for fleeing scene of 2023 hit-and-run that killed 4-year-old boy

A woman was convicted on Tuesday of leaving the scene of a May 2023 car accident that killed a 4-year-old boy and sparked widespread protests among members of Israel’s Ethiopian community.

Carol Fessler, 81, was convicted of fleeing the scene of the accident in Netanya in May 2023, after she hit Rafael Adana while he was walking with his grandfather. He was critically injured and died several days later.

Fessler had not been indicted for causing the boy’s death. She claimed that she did not realize that she hit anyone, and believed that a motorcyclist had hit and broken her side mirror but had kept driving.

Channel 12 news reported previously that an eyewitness saw the child step onto the road from the sidewalk without a pedestrian crossing when he was hit by Fessler’s vehicle. A senior police official told the TV network that “at the time, no driver could have stopped and prevented the injury. Therefore, the driver had no chance to swerve her car.”

The boy’s mother, Simcha Adana, said in response to the ruling on Tuesday that Fessler “tried to get away with no punishment, claiming that she didn’t know… I want her to pay with a prison sentence, not just community service,” according to the Ynet news site.

Adana said she does not want to see Fessler’s “life continue as usual, because my life didn’t move on. My boy didn’t come home. He remained 4 years old.”

It was not immediately clear when Fessler would be sentenced.

According to the judge, Fessler did not stop after the accident to check if she had hit anything or harmed anyone, but continued to drive home, where she noticed damage on her vehicle. She still did not report anything to police, but consulted a lawyer, the judge said, according to Ynet.

In August 2023, before charges were brought, some members of the Israeli-Ethiopian community staged protests in Tel Aviv demanding action and alleging that the police were dragging out the case and enabling a cover-up.

A protest that month turned violent when a police officer was stabbed and moderately wounded. The suspect ultimately charged with the stabbing was found to have a long history of violence and mental illness and had set out with the intent of harming police officers, not protesting, prosecutors said.

Another three officers were injured during the same protest, police said, when some protesters threw stones and other objects. At least 10 people were arrested during the protest for “throwing stones, attacking police officers, and violating public order.”

Fessler was first charged in November 2023, and was initially convicted in 2024 of neglect. But her attorney argued that she could not be charged with that since she did not believe she had harmed anyone. The Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court accepted the argument, leading her to ultimately be charged with leaving the scene of the accident.

While many initial accounts claimed that the driver’s daughter, Heidi Fessler, was also in the car during the incident, police later released evidence showing that the elder Fessler was alone at the time of the accident. Other rumors, some of which fueled the protests, included a claim that either mother or daughter attempted to hide evidence present on the car after the accident, which police also denied.

The Ethiopian community has charged authorities with discriminatory legal treatment in the past.

In 2019, the community held major protests over the fatal shooting of a community member by an off-duty police officer. In 2015, a large demonstration in support of the Ethiopian community and against police brutality and racism turned violent, leading to massive unrest at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square.