An indictment was filed this morning in the Rehovot Magistrate Court against Oren Zarog, Nissan Baranes, Otniel Madar, Ovadia Cohen, and Yigal Aklian for negligence, after a giant chandelier at the Yavneh wedding hall “Edya” fell from the ceiling onto wedding guests last year, killing Aviva Hayon and wounding 20 others.
According to the indictment, Cohen and Aklian were the owners of the hall, and Cohen also served as the owner of a company that provided lighting services to the hall. Zarog was a partner in the company along with Cohen, and was also appointed to have responsibility over the lighting - even though Zarog has training in engineering.
Baranes did metal work for the hall - despite the fact that he possessed no training in the profession, while Madar served a construction engineer.
Within the framework of setting up the hall, Cohen and Aklian worked with engineers and technicians to ensure that the proper permits were granted. By August 2014, most of the lighting had been installed, but the two forestalled making a decision on the price they were ready to pay for the central lighting of the hall.
As the hall approached opening day and there was still no central lighting, Zarog suggested to Cohen and Aklian that he would install the central lighting based on a Youtube video he had seen - even though he had no training in the field, and Cohen and Aklian agreed to his proposal. Zarog then drafted Baranes to install the lighting in the ceiling and told him how he should hang the lighting - without consulting a professional.
The main body of the lighting was installed with many defects and, despite the fact that many of the smaller lighting structures were secured with safety cables, Zarog and Baranes didn’t secure the central lighting structure with safety cables in case of emergency.
In August 2014, the hall opened and hosted many events, despite the fact that those indicted knew that the central lighting was not professionally built and installed, nor was it granted permit by a licensed mechanical engineer.
Three months later, Madar, an engineer, was brought in to check the hall’s lighting; he granted a permit to the central lighting without asking for essential details about the body of the lighting, without doing an in-depth check, and without emphasizing that he was not licensed to grant a permit to the central lighting, which, because it was attached to a motor, was like a “machine” and therefore needed the permit of a mechanical engineer. After the licensing officer refused to grant the permit because the relevant papers had been informally written by hand, Madar prepared printed papers without visiting the hall a second time.
On June 22, 2015, a wedding took place at the hall that included some 700 guests. During the event, the central lighting was activated such that it would move up and down from time to time. Around 12:30 AM, a good many people stood under the lighting - including Aviva Hayon.
At that moment, the man responsible for activating the movement of the central lighting did so, the cable holding up the lighting dislodged and the chandelier collapsed, killing Hayon immediately and wounding others, some of whom had to be evacuated to the hospital.