Almost six and a half years after the fatal accident that killed 34-year-old Tzippy Rimmel and her three-week-old daughter Noam Rachel, the offending driver was sentenced today.
The court sentenced the driver to six years in prison, even though the prosecution had asked for a 15-year sentence. The Rimmel family sharply criticized the sentence and the length of the legal process.
"6.5 years after the accident, two years after the verdict and about ten months after the hearing on the arguments for the sentence - the sentence has finally been handed down," they said. "Although the prosecution had asked for 15 years in prison, the court settled for only six years."
The family members described the decision as "disgraceful," adding: "There is no other word. It turns out that a human life is worth barely three years in prison."
According to them, the lengthy process added pain to the disaster that befell them. "After 6.5 years of legal torture, during which we tried to restore the ruins that the offending driver left behind, we are ending the legal process with a sense of disappointment. The court chose to significantly reduce the sentence of the one who ruined our lives."
The accident occurred on Saturday night, December 1, 2019. Four members of the Rimmel family - mother Tzippy, father Ephraim, and two of their children - were on their way back from Jerusalem to their home in Neve Tzuf.
Near Givat Zeev, on Highway 443, a driver speeding at over 170 km/h crashed into their car from behind. The mother, Tzippy (34), and her baby daughter, Noam Rachel, only three weeks old, were killed on the spot.
Efraim, the father of the family, was seriously injured and confined to a wheelchair. Itai, then 12 years old, was taken to Shaare Zedek Hospital in critical condition with multiple injuries, including a severe head injury. He was on a ventilator and sedated for several weeks. Following the accident, his left leg was amputated below the knee.