A 60-year-old man was killed on Monday evening when a truck collided with a bridge over Highway 4 near Givat Shmuel, causing the pedestrian bridge to collapse onto the road.
The bridge crosses the major north-south highway, going from the eastern Givat Shmuel side to the western Bnei Brak side.
The truck was pulled from underneath the ruins of the bridge shortly before midnight, some four hours after the collision. Magen David Adom paramedics then pronounced the 60-year-old truck driver dead.
The rescue operation lasted four hours due to the fact that the bridge collapsed on the front of the truck and crushed it completely.
The police blocked Highway 4 between the Mesubim interchange and Aluf Sadeh interchange in both directions following the collapse of the bridge.
Netivei Israel announced that the bridge collapsed as a result of the severe damage caused by the truck's crane which was raised to a height that was above the permiited level .
Yehuda Natanel, deputy director of the maintenance division at Netivei Israel, said, "At this time, special engineering teams are carrying out all the necessary actions for the rapid and professional evacuation of the road, which will be opened by the morning, after safety approval by authorized professionals."