Families of 24 Russians killed in bus crash arrive in Israel (Roundup)

Dec 17, 2008, 15:19 GMT

Tel Aviv - Two Russian aircraft landed in Israel Wednesday, one carrying relatives of 24 tour guides killed in a bus accident in southern Israel Tuesday, the other with doctors and forensic experts to help identify the bodies.

An El AL Israel Airlines flight to Russia, which was to have departed Wednesday night carrying the bodies of the victims of the crash, was cancelled, after Moscow said it would send an aircraft to bring the dead home.

The crash occurred late Tuesday afternoon near the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat when a bus transporting the travel agents, who had just arrived in the country, plunged into a gully along the hilly, winding road next to the Israel-Sinai border.

Witnesses said the bus, which was traveling well above the speed limit, left the road as its driver attempted to overtake another bus on a sharp curve.

Israeli Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz said Wednesday afternoon that the two bus drivers had argued over who would proceed first through a checkpoint, and this led them to race each other along the way.

Mofaz added, however, that his conclusions were not final, and police said they were still investigating the accident and could not give definite answers yet as to the exact cause of the crash.

The driver of the fatal bus, who was injured in the crash, was reported to have had 22 traffic violations on his record, although his driver's license was still valid.

Twenty-seven of the 31 people wounded in the accident remained in hospital Wednesday, Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.

Two of the injured were pronounced dead on arrival at hospital and two others died shortly afterwards.

All the injured have been transferred from the hospital in Eilat, near the scene of the crash, to medical centres elsewhere in the country.

Israeli President Shimon Peres, who spoke Tuesday evening with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, expressed condolences and said that although the accident was caused by the mistake of one person, 'we feel as if this tragedy happened to us.'