The bus driver whose vehicle was overtaken by the ill-fated bus filled with Russian travel agents on the highway to Eilat Tuesday afternoon insists he was not to blame for the tragic accident.
At least 25 Russian tourists were killed and more than 30 were wounded, including a few critically and a dozen others seriously, when their bus careened off the highway and fell more than 150 feet into a dry riverbed between Eilat and Ovdah.
Driver Rami Vazana said the tragedy was caused by the other driver's reckless driving in trying to overtake him on the winding highway. The driver whose bus crashed is of Russian origin. He denied the accusation by Transportation and Road Safety Minister Sha'ul Mofaz that the two drivers had been arguing just prior to the accident.
Mofaz, said Vazana, was "talking nonsense," and was wrong in thinking that the accident had been caused by a competition between the two drivers. "They are trying to frame me and I won't let that happen," said Vazana on Wednesday. "I was not racing with the driver."
A passenger in Vazana's bus said that Vazana had first passed the ill-fated bus, and that then the latter bus tried - unsuccessfully - to pass Vazana.
Vazana was questioned by police following the accident. Investigators said that the other driver, whose bus crashed and who was lightly injured himself, had a history of 22 prior traffic violations and was not familiar with Highway 12, the road where the accident occurred.