Two children killed in car crash near Jerusalem

Yedidya Yungreis, 5, and his older brother, Elishav Yungreis, 7, from Beit El were killed on Friday afternoon in a car accident just outside of Jerusalem, a Magen David Adom (MDA) spokesperson said.
Two other family members, 10-year-old Yair Yungreis and his 25-year-old uncle who was driving the car were critically injured and were evacuated to the Hadassah Hospital. Both suffered multi-system injuries.

On Saturday evening, Hadassah announced that Yair, the 10-year-old who was critically injured is in stable condition and fully conscious. The 25-year-old uncle is intubated and sedated, following an orthopedic surgery.
Initial findings indicate that the accident took place after the private vehicle crashed for unknown reasons into a truck that was standing by the side of the road leading to Jerusalem, near Sha'ar Hagai interchange.
"In a car crash near Sha'ar Hagai interchange MDA paramedics were forced to pronounce the deaths of a 5-year-old child and a 7-year-old child on the scene," MDA announced.

MDA paramedic Ilan Gur Ari added that "when arriving to the scene, we saw a private vehicle that had crashed into a truck. Four individuals were laying outside of the vehicle, including a 5 and 7 year-old children who were unconscious, showed no signs of a pulse and were not breathing, while suffering from multi-system injuries. After checking their vital signs we were forced to pronounce their deaths on the scene. A 14-year-old teenager and the driver, a 25-year-old were suffering from serious multi-system injuries and were rushed to the hospital in critical condition after receiving primary care on the scene."

Head of the Beit El Local Council consoled the Yungreis family and promised to provide any help the mourning family might require. "The Beit El family joins the Yungreis family in mourning the painful tragedy of losing their two young children Yedidya and Elishav. We will do everything in our power together with Beit El's great community to provide the parents, Yaakov and Rachel, as well as the grandparents, all of the support they may need during these challenging times."

Following the tragic accident, Chairman of the Knesset Subcommittee on Road Safety, MK Boaz Toporovsky noted that this deadly reality will not change without a comprehensive, well-budgeted, plan.
"Two Knesset emergency meetings were held in the past month on the death of children in car crashes and the involvement of heavy vehicles in these kinds of accidents. The tragic accident that happened a few hours ago has proven to us that the Israeli government and the Transportation Ministry have to promote a comprehensive plan with great financial resources in order to actually change this reality and save people's lives on the roads," Toporovsky said, according to Maariv.

Toporovsky added that "the amount of car accidents caused by vehicles stopping on the road's margins, requires a new approach for using and defining margins. The committee headed by me will continue to offer and criticize short-term solutions as well as a long-term vision that will aim to prevent the next accident."

According to data published by the National Road Safety Authority, some 21 children up to the age of 14 have lost their lives in car accidents during 2020, with 149 children being critically injured.