Hila Michali-Nachman
Hila Michali-NachmanCourtesy of the family

The State Attorney's office has filed an indictment with the Central District Court against Yosef Cohen, who ran over Hila Michali-Nachman four months ago, killing her. Cohen is charged with a hit-and-run, obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence.

According to the indictment, at around 8:30 pm on March 1st, Nachman was driving on route 6 with her toddler son next to her on the passenger's seat, and her mother and twin six-month-old sons on the back seat.

Nachman lost control of the car while driving, causing the vehicle to spin around until it came to a stop on the shoulder on the side of the road, facing traffic. The motor then started smoking. Nachman found that the right-side door couldn't be opened, and therefore extracted her children from the car through the window and returned to the road to assist her mother in exiting the vehicle.

Two citizens, clad in reflective safety vests, were standing on the other side of the road at the same time, as their car had also broken down. Upon seeing Nachman's predicament, and unable to cross the busy highway, they began warning approaching cars of the danger of hitting Nachman's car using flashlights.

Yosef Cohen was then close by, driving in the left lane at approximately 150 km per hour. As he approached the area, Nachman was standing in the left lane assisting her mother. Cohen hit her with the car at full speed, killing her.

Immediately afterwards Cohen stopped his car and decided to try to conceal his involvement in the accident by concealing evidence. He walked to the two people standing on the other side of the road, (who had not seen who was driving the car that hit Nachman) and started questioning them about what happened, without mentioning his involvement.

Cohen then spent around 18 minutes in the area in order to make it seem that he was just a bystander, and didn't mention anything to the police and rescue crews who soon arrived. He then returned to his car and left.

Cohen then immediately drove to a car dealership in Petah Tikva, which he owns, and washed the car using high water pressure in order to destroy evidence. At this point, in order to throw off the investigation, he drove to a police station in Hadera, where he falsely reported being hit by a black Mercedes while driving on Highway 6.