A couple, a man in his 30s and a woman in her 20s, and their baby daughter were killed Thursday morning in a serious car accident between a bus and a private car on Route 90 near the Neot Hakikar junction at the southern part of the Dead Sea.
MDA personnel who were called to the scene of the accident were forced to confirm the deaths of the three at the scene. Suspicions that the collision was the result of a flat tire on the bus are being investigated. "The wheel exploded, the bus veered off the path, and then the collision happened," said one of the bus passengers.
Fourteen of the passengers on the bus involved in the accident were also injured. Their is light and they were treated by MDA teams and evacuated to Soroka hospital in Be'er Sheva by helicopter and ambulance.
Road 90 was blocked to traffic from the Arava junction to the Zohar junction in both directions following the accident. Police are asking the drivers to use alternative routes.
MDA medic Maor Leav described the scene. "When we arrived at the scene, it was shocking. We saw a bus standing by the side of the road with the passengers standing beside it. Nearby, in a ditch by the side of the road, we saw a private car upside down, smashed and crushed. Outside the car there was a baby of about a year in critical condition. Two MDA medics who had been passing by and were called to the scene through the MDA app began performing CPR.”
"A young woman in her 20s lay outside the car and a man in his 30s suffering multi-systemic injuries was trapped in the driver's seat. The man and woman lacked a pulse and were not breathing and, after medical checks, we had to confirm their deaths at the scene. The baby of about 1 was transferred to an intensive care ambulance and, after CPR, we were forced to confirm his death.”
MDA paramedic Itai Orion added, “The baby of about 1 year was unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing, with multi-systemic injuries. With the aid of a doctor who rushed to the scene we performed sustained CPR but his condition was critical, and we were forced to confirm his death at the scene after several long minutes. This was a very serious accident. The bus passengers were at the scene all the time and there was a commotion.”
Senior MDA medic Sarah Yisraeli said, "When we got to the scene of the accident we saw about 50 passengers outside the bus, all of them were fully conscious and walked around. I did a scan of the bus and began sorting out the passengers who complained. 13 passengers suffered minor injuries and signs of anxiety. We gave them first aid and we helped them. We drove the driver, a man of about 50, to the MDA helicopter that landed nearby and the other passengers we took to the ambulances and evacuated them to Soroka Hospital, all of them in light condition."