Over 60 people injured in bus collision near Holon Junction
Woman moderately injured while 60 others lightly hurt after bus driver loses control and hits 2 other buses and several vehicles before veering off the road.
It appears a bus driver lost control of his vehicle, which was full of passengers, hit another bus and a number of other cars and then kept driving into the junction where he hit a third bus and more vehicles. The bus then drove over a traffic island and stopped by a highway ramp, finally coming to a halt on a hill on the side of the road.
Magen David Adom paramedics said that following the accident "cars were spread across three nearby junctions."
The head of MDA's Dan District, Itzik Ben-Aharon, added: "This is a serious accident with injured spread over a half-a-kilometer radius from the Holon Junction."
The injured were taken to several hospitals in the area, including Ichilov Hospital at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, the Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer, Beilinson Hospital at the Rabin Medical Center and Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center.
Yael, one of the passengers on bus 174 from Rishon Lezion to Tel Aviv, said the driver was speeding.
Hadar from Ness Ziona, who was also on the bus, said "We were in a traffic jam before the junction. The bus was supposed to turn right. It started going and then we felt it hitting the vehicle ahead of us—he (the driver) pushed (the other vehicle) forward. He drove into a lot of cars on the way."
Hadar also claimed the bus drove through a red light, hit another bus, and then veered off the road and was stopped by a hill. "It was very stressful. I'm lucky that I've only been lightly scratched," she said.
Yosefa, who was also on the bus, said: "We know this driver well. This was a regular drive and as usual we were stuck in traffic, and all of a sudden he started colliding with other cars and did not respond to any of us yelling at him."
A spokesman for the Egged bus company said that "the initial assessment by experts on the scene is that it is possible this was the result of human failure, but we will investigate the matter thoroughly."
Human failure means all of the bus's systems were found to be in order while the driver was legally fit to transport passengers but that it is possible his own actions caused the accident.
"The bus driver, who is 65 years old, was hired by Egged in recent months as part of a widespread effort to fill drivers positions in public transportation, and began working some five months ago," the Egged spokesman went on to say.
Ynet has learned that the Egged bus had undergone a scheduled test for the winter a month ago and was found to be completely in order. In addition, the driver, who started working for Egged six months ago, had a bus driver's license from 2011 and was required to do 24 practical lessons before he could start working.
