Site of Beit El Accident
Site of Beit El AccidentPolice Spokesperson

A five-year-old boy was struck by a Binyamin Regional Council shuttle bus on Monday in the Samarian community of Beit El. 

Teams of Magen David Adom paramedics were called to the scene. They began to provide the child with first aid treatment, but were unable to save him, and subsequently determined his death at the scene. 

The boy's name has been released as Benaya Shukrun; his funeral will be held in Beit El Monday night.

MDA paramedic Uri Tzahi described the scene: "When we arrived, we saw a bus at the center of the road and on the road a lay a boy of about 5. Next to him was a dismantled scooter."

"The child was unconscious with no pulse, he wasn't breathing, and was suffering multi-system trauma. In only a short amount of time, we had to confirm his death, with the help of an IDF medical examiner who arrived on the scene."

An initial investigation shows the boy was riding a scooter down a road when he got stuck between the wheels of the bus and was run over, without the driver noticing. 

This latest boy's death brings the number of children killed in road accidents since the start of 2015 up to nine, Channel Two reported.

According to data from the Or Yarok Association for Safer Driving in Israel, an average of 40 children are killed in driving accidents per year. The nine children killed so far in 2015 were between the ages of 0 and 14. 

Or Yarok's CEO, Shmuel Aboav, said of the data that "Israel is not protecting its children. Every year dozens of children are deprived of their lives in road accidents." 

"The role of the state is to protect them," Aboav continued. "Every child should be given a weekly hour of lessons on road safety. From an early, children must understand the importance of road safety. We will then be able to save the lives of many children."