The victims of a tragic accident on Route 90 near the Dead Sea in southern Israel Thursday have been identified as 28-year-old Kfir Avitan, his wife, 28-year-old Shira Avitan, and the couple’s one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Gaya.
The three were killed Thursday morning in a traffic accident involving a private car and a bus near the Neot Hakikar junction on Route 90, near the southern end of the Dead Sea.
The Avitan family resided in the town of Katzrin in the Golan Heights, and was driving down to the southern city of Eilat for a vacation.
“The community of Katzrin mourns the untimely death of Kfir, Shira, and Gaya in a terrible traffic accident,” the Katzrin town council said in a statement Thursday, “and we share in the deep mourning of their families.”
No details regarding the three victim’s funerals have yet been released.
During the accident Thursday morning, a bus operated by the Egged company struck the Avitan family vehicle, a Renault Kangoo, roughly 1.8 miles (three kilometers) from Neot Hakikar.
The driver of the bus involved in the accident told authorities that he heard one the bus’ tires blow out, and a subsequent loss of control in the steering system.
Fourteen of the passengers on the bus involved in the accident were also injured. The injured passengers were evacuated in light condition to Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva for treatment.
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.”