Toddler killed in Negev; driver fixing flat tire hit, dies

Hard day on roads: Two-year-old fatally struck in Rahat car accident. After short manhunt, family relative detained on suspicion of being guilty driver. Meanwhile, on Route 6, truck hits another truck driver changing wheel at roadside

Ynet reporters|Published: 10.01.13 , 18:10

Two serious accidents occurred Tuesday in less than an hour. A two-year-old was killed on Tuesday in a car accident in Rahat. He was taken to the hospital in the city, and died of his wounds a short time later. Police arrived at the scene to try to track down the driver, and a short time later, a relative of the boy was detained for questioning under suspicion that he was the guilty driver.

At almost the same time, a 46-year-old truck driver was critically injured on Route 6, on the section between the Nitzana Oz interchange, to Baqa al-Gharbiyye to the north. Magen David Adom paramedics arrived at the scene and began to perform lengthy resuscitation, but were forced to pronounce the driver’s death.

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An initial investigation revealed that another truck hit the man, apparently as he was replacing a wheel on the side of the road. The driver of the truck that hit the man, and the passenger who had sat next to the driver who was killed, were both slightly injured. They were evacuated to the Hillel Yaffe hospital in Hadera.

Meanwhile, a four-year-old boy who was critically injured in an accident in Afula 11 days ago, died Tuesday of his injuries at Rambam Hospital in Haifa. His mother was seriously injured in the same incident. The two, residents of Daburiyah, crossed Sderot Hanasi in Afula and were hit by a jeep.

Accident on Route 6 (Photo: Dovrat Malul)

(Photo: Asaf Livneh, MDA public relations)

The child was unconscious and hospitalized in the children’s ICU. The Police traffic division launched an investigation into the circumstances of the accident.

On Sunday, Oren Ben-Baruch, 10, was killed when he was hit by a truck as he rode his bike through a crosswalk at the Patt junction in Jerusalem. Over the weekend, six people were killed in road accidents throughout Israel. Among the dead was Maxim Blacher, 26, of Ashkelon, who in 2006 was critically injured in a car accident and recovered.

In early August, another fatal accident occurred on Route 6, which involved a garbage truck that had stopped on the side of the road. Four people were killed and 14 others injured when a bus hit the truck.