Israel Railways - Notable Accidents

Notable Accidents

• On December 26, 1963 two passenger trains on the then single-track main line linking Tel Aviv and Haifa collided head-on at Bet Yehoshua just south of Netanya. The northbound train had passed a red signal and its locomotive rode over and crushed the locomotive of the southbound train. None of the coaches was derailed but a coupler broke in the northbound train detaching the rear three coaches. The continuous train brake should have then automatically stopped the detached coaches but it had not been connected properly so they started to roll back southwards. 55 people were injured but only three seriously enough to be detained in hospital. The two head-end crews survived but their locomotives, EMD G12s 105 and 118, were destroyed.
• In 1972 a train crashed into a military truck, killing 18 soldiers.
• HaBonim disaster: On June 11, 1985 a train collided with a bus carrying school children, killing 19 children and 3 adults, near moshav HaBonim.
• On June 21, 2005 an IC3 train crashed into a freight truck near kibbutz Revadim, killing 8 and injuring 198.
• July 8 2005, a train collided with a truck between Kiryat Gat and Ahuzam, resulting the death of the train driver and 38 injuries.
• On June 12, 2006 a train crashed into a truck near Beit Yehoshua, killing 5 and injuring from 77 to over 80.
• On December 27, 2009 a train crashed into a car near Kiryat Gat. The driver proceeded without regard to the train checkpoint on the road. The train struck his car and he was killed.
• On August 5, 2010 a train crashed into a minibus near Kiryat Gat, killing 7 and injuring 6. The minibus was hit at 19:05 GMT+3 on Route 353, apparently as it tried to pass over a level crossing.
• On December 28, 2010 a fire started in a train near kibbutz Yakum, probably because of a short circuit, injuring 116.
• On April 7, 2011 two trains collided frontally near Netanya, injuring 59.