Train Hits Bus Carrying Israeli Students; 21 Killed, 17 Injured

A train and bus collided at a railway crossing near the Mediterranean coast today, killing 21 people, most of them seventh graders heading for a school outing at the beach, police said.

Police spokesman David Frankel said 17 other people were injured in the crash 14 miles south of Haifa. All the dead were from the bus and included the bus driver, a woman.

The impact crushed the sides of the bus, flipped it over and threw it more than 40 yards from the crossing. Bodies were thrown as far as 100 yards from the bus.

“The bodies were crushed, a leg here, a leg there, and the kids were screaming to high heaven,” said photographer Zvi Roger.

The bus was carrying members of a seventh grade class at the Brenner School in Petah Tikva, a Tel Aviv suburb.

“What I remember is that there was a blast from the train’s whistle, and the rear part (of the bus) was hit,” one student, Shlomo Da’aboul, told Israel radio. “In the back, all the children were singing and playing games.”

“This is a heavy tragedy for the entire country,” Prime Minister Shimon Peres said as he visited survivors at Rambam Hospital in Haifa.

Israel Railways Director Zvi Tsafriri said the bus probably got stuck on the crossing as it tried to head down the dirt road leading to the Mediterranean seashore, less than a mile away.

He said the train was traveling about 60 m.p.h. when it reached the crossing, which has no barrier to halt traffic.

Tsafriri said the train engineer saw the bus and tried to stop, “but he only managed to bring the train to a halt 250 (yards) after the crossing.”