 | This article may be excessively based on contemporary reporting.(March 2024) |
| 2008 Israeli tour bus crash | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Details | |
| Date | 16 December 2008 |
| Location | Israel |
| Statistics | |
| Deaths | 25 |
The 2008 Israeli tour bus crash was a road accident in southern Israel on 16 December 2008 in which a coach carrying Russian tour operators left the road and plunged into a ravine, killing 25. [1] [2] It is the deadliest traffic accident in Israel's history. [2] [3]
The coach was carrying 60 passengers, [2] a group of Russian tour operators from St Petersburg, from Ovda International Airport to the holiday resort of Eilat. [4] The accident occurred when the bus driver, Edward Gelfond, attempted to overtake another bus on a steep, winding stretch of the road. [3] The bus crashed through the roadside safety barrier and fell 60 metres down a slope, turning over several times. [5]
Initially, it was reported that 24 passengers had died; [4] the figure later rose to 25. Another 33 people were injured, including 23 in serious condition, [2] and were taken to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Yoseftal Medical Center in Eilat and Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. [5]
Gelfond, who survived the crash, claimed that something fell on him, causing him to lose control, [3] though Minister of Transport and Road Safety Shaul Mofaz stated that there was a dispute between the two drivers and that the accident "was the result of the drivers' thuggery." [3] However, the second bus driver Rami Vazana has claimed there was no dispute, and that Gelfond had just been attempting to overtake him. [5] Israel Police have stated that it is too soon to place the blame on a dispute between the two bus drivers. [5] It was later revealed that Gelfond had 22 prior traffic convictions, [3] whilst initial reports suggested that he was speeding at the time of the accident, claims which Gelfond denied. [5] Investigators discovered that the coach's tachograph was missing the disc used to record speed. [6]
Gelfond was arrested immediately after being released from hospital. [6] On 14 July 2009 he was charged with manslaughter, [7] and in 2014 was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, expressed sorrow over the "horrific outcome". He and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni conveyed condolences to the victims' families. A special emergency hotline began operating at the Jewish community center in St. Petersburg, and the Jewish Agency contacted the Russian embassy in Israel and offered to provide whatever assistance required by the families. The Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Tourism Ministry began operating a situation room aimed at facilitating the communication with the Russian embassy in Israel and the Russian government. Two Russian government planes took off to Israel, one carrying the victims' families and the other carrying doctors, medical equipment, psychologists and rescue teams. [8]
Eilat is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of 52,753, a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan as the Gulf of Aqaba. The city is considered a tourist destination for domestic and international tourists heading to Israel.
Transportation in Israel is based mainly on private motor vehicles and bus service and an expanding railway network. A lack of inland waterways and the small size of the country make air and water transport of only minor importance in domestic transportation, but they are vitally important for Israel's international transport links. Demands of population growth, political factors, the Israel Defense Forces, tourism and increased traffic set the pace for all sectors, being a major driver in the mobility transition towards railways and public transit while moving away from motorized road transport. All facets of transportation in Israel are under the supervision of the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety.
Egged Transportation Ltd is the largest transit bus company in Israel. Egged's intercity bus routes reach most Israeli cities, towns, kibbutzim and moshavim, and the company operates urban city buses throughout the country. It also operates in Poland and the Netherlands through a subsidiary.
Israel Railways Ltd. is the state-owned principal railway company responsible for all inter-city, commuter, and freight rail transport in Israel. Israel Railways network consists of 1,138 kilometers (707 mi) of track. All its lines are standard gauge. The network is centered in Israel's densely populated coastal plain, from which lines radiate out in many directions. In 2018, Israel Railways carried 68 million passengers.
Highway 90 is the longest Israeli road, at about 480 kilometres (300 mi), and stretches from Metula and the northern border with Lebanon, along the western side of the Sea of Galilee, through the Jordan River Valley, along the Dead Sea's western bank, through the Arabah valley, and until Eilat and the southern border with Egypt on the Red Sea. The central section of the road traverses the Israeli-occupied West Bank. While it passes near the city of Jericho, it runs through Area C and does not enter areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
The Sinai bus crash was a bus accident in the Sinai Peninsula in August 2006 which left twelve Israeli tourists dead. The tourists, who were Israeli Arabs, were riding a chartered bus as part of a convoy of eight buses carrying Arab tourists. The bus overturned and landed upside down between Nuweiba and Taba. The survivors claimed the driver intentionally crashed the bus and the incident was a terrorist attack.
The Tel Aviv–Jerusalem bus 405 attack was a suicide attack which occurred on 6 July 1989, during the First Intifada, and was carried out by Abd al-Hadi Ghanim of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. On a crowded Egged commuter bus line No. 405 en route from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, Ghanim seized the steering wheel of the bus, running it off a steep cliff into a ravine in the area of Qiryat Ye'arim. Sixteen civilians—including two Canadians and one American—died in the attack, and 27 were wounded.
The rampe de Laffrey is a section of France's Route nationale 85, itself part of the route Napoléon. It connects the communes of Laffrey and Vizille in the department of Isère, about 15 kilometers southeast of Grenoble.
Israeli casualties of war, in addition to those of Israel's nine major wars, include 9,745 soldiers and security forces personnel killed in "miscellaneous engagements and terrorist attacks", which includes security forces members killed during military operations, by fighting crime, natural disasters, diseases, traffic or labor accidents and disabled veterans whose disabilities contributed to their deaths. Between 1948 and 1997, 20,093 Israeli soldiers were killed in combat, 75,000 Israelis were wounded, and nearly 100,000 Israelis were considered disabled army veterans. On the other hand, in 2010 Yom Hazikaron, Israel honored the memory of 22,684 Israeli soldiers and pre-Israeli Palestinian Jews killed since 1860 in the line of duty for the independence, preservation and protection of the nation, and 3,971 civilian terror victims. The memorial roll, in addition to IDF members deceased, also include fallen members of the Shin Bet security service, the Mossad intelligence service, the Israel Police, the Border Police, the Israel Prisons Service, other Israeli security forces, the pre-state Jewish underground, and the Jewish Brigade and the Jewish Legion.
On July 2, 2008, an Arab resident of East Jerusalem identified as Hussam Taysir Duwait attacked several cars on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem in a vehicle-ramming attack using a front-end loader, killing three civilians and wounding at least thirty other pedestrians, before being shot to death. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that an inquiry indicated the attacker had been acting alone. A motive for the attack could not immediately be determined, but police at the scene referred to the incident as a terrorist attack. Three copycat attacks have occurred since then.
Events in the year 2010 in Israel.
Events in the year 2008 in Israel.
On August 18, 2011, a series of cross-border attacks with parallel attacks and mutual cover was carried out in southern Israel on Highway 12 near the Egyptian border by a squad of presumably twelve militants in four groups. The attacks occurred after Israel's interior security service Shin Bet had warned of an attack by militants in the region and Israeli troops had been stationed in the area. The militants first opened fire at an Egged No. 392 bus as it was traveling on Highway 12 in the Negev near Eilat. Several minutes later, a bomb was detonated next to an Israeli army patrol along Israel's border with Egypt. In a third attack, an anti-tank missile hit a private vehicle, killing four civilians. Eight Israelis – six civilians, one Yamam special unit police sniper and one Golani Brigade soldier—were killed in the multiple-stage attack. The Israel Defense Forces reported eight attackers killed, and Egyptian security forces reported killing another two.
The High-speed railway to Eilat (Med-Red) is a proposed Israeli railway that will enable the connection of the main Israeli population centers and Mediterranean ports to the southern city of Eilat on the Red Sea coast, as well as serve commercial freight between the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea (Eilat). The railway will spur southward from the existing rail line at Beersheba, and continue through Dimona to the Arava, Ramon Airport and Eilat, at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour (220 mph). Its length will be roughly 260 km (160 mi) of electrified double-track rail. Currently Dimona railway station is the southernmost passenger train station in Israel and the one with the least boardings/alightings.
Ramon Airport, named after Ilan and Assaf Ramon and unofficially also known as Eilat-Ramon Airport, is an international airport located in the Timna Valley in southern Israel. Ramon Airport is the second busiest in Israel and has replaced the former Eilat Airport and Ovda Airport for civilian traffic. It also serves as the primary diversion airport in Israel.
Events in the year 2013 in Israel.
On June 23, 2013, 19 people, all Romanians, were killed and another 28 wounded in a bus crash near Podgorica in Montenegro. The bus, a Neoplan Tourliner with registration plate number B 123 MMJ, skidded off the road, crashing into a ravine about 40 m below. A local child who was on the road at the time of the accident was also injured, but not seriously. The accident reportedly occurred around 5 to 6 pm 30 km north of Podgorica, the capital and largest city of Montenegro. There were about 50 people on board, all of them Romanian citizens.
A passenger bus fell into a ravine, nearly 100-foot (30 m) high, in Carranglan, Nueva Ecija, the Philippines, killing 36 people and injuring about 40 others, after it lost its brakes near Dalton Pass on April 18, 2017. The accident surpassed the number of deaths in the bus crash in Tanay, Rizal this year which happened in February and killed 15.