Mother of six, nurse, and volunteer EMT Dana Ben-Shushan was killed this morning (Thursday) in a collision between a bus and a car on Route 89 near Tzfat in northern Israel.
Ben-Shushan was critically injured and needed to be extracted from the vehicle. MDA teams at the scene attempted to revive her but, in the end, were forced to pronounce her dead.
Six of the bus's passengers who were lightly injured were taken to Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat. Two additional passengers who were lightly injured traveled to the hospital by themselves.
Senior MDA EMT Mohamed Halail related: "When we arrived at the scene, we saw a very severe accident between a private car and a bus. The front of the car was crushed, and a 32-year-old woman was trapped inside unconscious. After extracting her, we conducted a medical examination. She suffered a very severe multi-organ injury, and we, unfortunately, had to pronounce her dead. Six additional injured bus passengers who were lightly injured were treated at the scene and were taken to the hospital."
A spokesperson for United Hatzalah stated: "Our pain is as great as the sea, who will heal us?... We announce with great pain that a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT from the Galilee branch was killed this morning in a severe traffic accident near the southern entrance to Tzfat. The EMT, Dana Ben-Shushan, a mother of Six, a Galilee United Hatzalah volunteer, was critically injured as she traveled home from a shift at the hospital where she works as a nurse.
The organization's administration and volunteers bow their heads during this difficult time, we join in the family's pain and embrace them and her dear husband, Haim, who also volunteers with United Hatzalah. The organization's administration and emergency and mental health assistance teams are assisting the family and helping them to the best of their abilities."
According to the National Road Safety Authority, today's victim is the 201st accident victim in Israel since the beginning of the year. On this date last year, there were 184 victims since the beginning of the year. Since the beginning of the year, two people were killed in accidents involving buses. Since July 1st, ten people were killed on the roads. June was especially deadly, with 39 victims.