Scene of the deadly accident on Route 89
Scene of the deadly accident on Route 89Eyal Marom, United Hatzalah, Ma'alot Branch

Israel Police are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding a deadly traffic accident on Route 89 which left five dead on Wednesday evening.

In the accident involving a bus carrying Bnei Akiva youth returning from a field trip and three private vehicles, a mother and her three children were killed, and the children's father was left with severe injuries, and is unconscious and on a respirator.

According to Maariv, the bus driver, who was also killed in the crash, had 51 prior convictions for traffic violations.

The police investigation showed that bus driver Asher Bason veered out of his lane in a no-pass zone, bumped into the guardrail, and flipped over. In the course of the accident, he hit three vehicles, causing a total of five deaths, with 57 other people suffering injuries.

Later on Thursday, additional details were released. According to Ynet, it is suspected that the bus veered out of its lane, hitting the side of a commercial vehicle. It then rammed into an additional vehicle before colliding head-on with the taxi in which the Ben Eli family was traveling. After colliding with the taxi, the bus overturned.

According to Israel Hayom, in 2017 Bason was convicted of running a red light and fined 1,000 shekel. The legal protocol showed that he has been driving since 1966, and from then to 2017 was convicted of traffic offenses 38 times. In other words, the site pointed out, since 2017 - four-and-a-half years ago - Bason was convicted 12 times of traffic offenses.

Ynet added that among Bason's 51 convictions in 55 years on the road were seven convictions for excessive speeding, though his last offense of that nature occurred 20 years ago. The investigation will now focus on what caused the bus to veer out of its lane and whether Bason experienced a medical event which could have caused him to veer.

At the same time, N12 wrote that "dozens of the killed bus driver's traffic offenses were technical. The latest of them, from last year, was for disobeying a traffic sign, and his most recent speeding offense was five years ago. But all told, his list of offenses does not show that we're talking about a serious traffic offender."

Police intend to gather additional testimonies on Thursday.