Lipnick family
Lipnick familyCourtesy of the family

In the serious accident at the Shavei Shomron junction last night, Ori Lipnik, 13, and her brother Roi, 8, were killed.

The family's mother Shirli and another son (13) were seriously injured. The father Ohad, 35, was lightly to moderately injured, as was his five-month-old son, who remains in a moderate condition.

All members of the family were evacuated by MDA teams to Meir Hospital in Kfar Sava, and the parents decided to donate the corneas and skin of their children who were killed.

An initial investigation revealed that the Arab vehicle lost control after apparently traveling at a speed highly unsuitable to prevailing road conditions, hit a safety railing, bounced into the middle of the road and blocked the Lipnik family vehicle.

Dr. Haim Paran, director of the hospital's medical department and responsible for the hospital's trauma unit, reported today on the condition of the injured: "The entire family arrived; the father is in moderate-light condition, and is currently hospitalized in our ward for supervision. His wife arrived in critical condition, she is on respiration and under sedation. She underwent surgery early in the morning and her condition is stable but still critical. Another child arrived in a precarious state. We had to perform an urgent operation throughout the night. His condition is currently stable but still critical; he is in pediatric intensive care. A six-month-old baby also arrived in light condition, also in intensive care at the moment."

שני ילדים נהרגו בתאונה קשה בשומרון

Shomron Regional Council head Yossi Dagan calls on the government to act immediately to improve infrastructure on Judea and Samaria's roads.

"Unfortunately, both we and the Samaria Region police have been working for a long time to get additional traffic policemen and to increase enforcement on the roads in Samaria, and our many requests were simply not answered. Unfortunately, we see berserk driving by Arabs in the entire area.

"On exactly the same road a resident of Einav, the nearby village was killed less than a year ago. Also this case was because of the wild Arab driving. I have to say that there is under-enforcement throughout Judea and Samaria, because there are those who don't see fit to provide personnel here for the matter as they do for other parts of the country.

"Traffic police are almost nonexistent and there's not enough emphasis on enforcement, the wild driving of local Arab drivers, and education for a new driving culture which could have saved both the lives of the Arabs and the lives of Jews in this terrible accident last night. The road on which the accident occurred has no lighting, with twists and turns and not enough infrastructure. I call on the Transportation Minister and the Internal Security Minister, who are both good people who care, to take lead in the matter and convene an urgent meeting with us to lead an emergency plan to improve infrastructure and enforcement throughout Judea and Samaria. We mustn't see any more shocking cases like this if there's something to be done about it."

According to the National Road Safety Authority, 20 people have been killed on the roads since the beginning of the year, compared to 30 in the same period last year.