Tuesday's bus crash: Driver arrested
Driver from bus accident that left 24 dead arrested immediately after being released from hospital; placed under house arrest by court. Team investigating crash finds 'black box' was missing required disk, didn’t record data
The driver of the bus involved in the fatal crash on the road to Eilat on Tuesday that left 24 Russian travel agents dead was released from the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva and placed under house arrest on Thursday.
The driver, Edward Gelfond, was hospitalized after sustaining light wounds in the crash and was immediately taken in for questioning after his release from the hospital.
Gelfond, who was arrested under suspicion of negligent homicide, reckless driving and overtaking another vehicle with a limited field of vision was brought before the Kfar Saba Magistrate's Court and placed under a 30-day house.
The suspect was released on bail in the amount of NIS 10,000.
The initial findings of the team investigating the fatal bus accident showed that the bus's tachograph device was missing a required disk.
The tachograph is a device used to record a vehicle's speed and the length of time that it is moving or stationary.
The use of tachographs is required by law in order to monitor speed and also to ensure that drivers do not work more consecutive hours than permitted.
In the past there have been cases when companies disconnected the device or forged its data in order to get around maximum work hour regulations.
However, police said the malfunction shouldn't affect the investigation, which is based on eyewitness accounts and evidence gathered at the scene of the accident.
The investigative team is also inspecting whether an argument between the driver and another driver lead to the bus' spinning off course.
The plane that is set to carry the bodies of those killed in the crash back to Russia landed at Ben-Gurion Airport Thursday morning. Relatives of the deceased are waiting in St. Petersburg for the plane's arrival.
