Seven people have been killed in four different car accidents across Israel over the past day, with at least 10 others injured.
In the latest incident, three people were killed, and four were injured in a car accident between a truck and several vehicles on Highway 77 in northern Israel on Sunday, the Northern District Fire and Rescue Spokesperson said in a statement.
The injured were transferred to the MDA for treatment, the spokesperson said, with several evacuated by helicopter.
Three crews of firefighters rescued the four injured women. They then extracted the bodies of the three victims, who had become trapped in their vehicles as a result of the crash.
The victims' bodies were transferred to MDA, which pronounced them dead.
A senior firefighting official at the scene described the accident as "very serious," with the victims' vehicles "completely crushed under a heavy truck."
"We performed a complex rescue of the trapped women in the private vehicles using hydraulic tools, and all of them were transferred to MDA," he said.
Following the Highway 77 accident, three additional car accidents injured at least two people, with one of them causing delays on the R1 light rail line in the Bat Yam area.
Seven killed in car accidents in one day
At 1:24 a.m., Magen David Adom (MDA) received a report of an accident involving two private vehicles in Rishon LeZion.
“This was a severe traffic accident involving two vehicles, said MDA paramedic Ella Ayim and EMTs Netanel Katz and Daniel Giat. “One of the vehicles had overturned and caught fire. Inside the burning vehicle, a person was trapped unconscious, and on the side of the road lay a young man around 20 years old, also unconscious.”
Both had no pulse, were not breathing, and suffered severe burns to their bodies. The two young men, both around 20-years-old, were pronounced dead at the scene by first responders.
Additional medical personnel treated a 25-year-old man in serious condition and two women, around the age of 18, in moderate condition. The three were evacuated to Wolfson Medical Center in Holon and Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer for further treatment.
A minute later, at 1:25 a.m., MDA received a report of a 20-year-old motorcyclist struck by a vehicle on Highway 60 in the Jerusalem region, who was pronounced dead on scene.
“We saw the motorcyclist unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing, with severe injuries to his body,” said MDA paramedic Miriam Sharvit Sabag, senior EMT Yair Lax, and EMT Naor Saker. “We provided medical treatment, including prolonged resuscitation efforts, but unfortunately were forced to pronounce him dead.”
One killed, three injured in southern Israel
Hours later, at 8:32 a.m., MDA dispatch in southern Israel received a report of an accident involving two vehicles on Highway 90 near Ein Hatzeva.
A 50-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene by MDA personnel.
A 60-year-old man with serious injuries and a 60-year-old woman with moderate injuries were airlifted to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba for further treatment.
“While firefighters carried out the rescue operation, we performed medical examinations and were forced to pronounce [the 50-year-old man] dead at the scene,” MDA paramedics Hodaya Shalom Winter and Dan Avivi said. “In the second vehicle, we saw a man and woman around 60 years old, fully conscious with severe injuries to the abdomen, chest, and limbs.”
“We provided medical treatment and transferred them to the MDA helicopter that landed nearby and evacuated them to the hospital.”