Tragedy struck in the French Alps on Wednesday evening when a Chareidi woman from Elad, Israel was R”L killed in a head-on collision. Early reports say that the collision was caused by the slippery road conditions in the area.

The woman has been identified as Yael Basiss A”H, a mother of four, who was vacationing in France.

The accident took place in the Les Moniere region which is located some ten minutes away from the hotel where the woman was staying.

The woman was critically injured and brought to the local hospital where doctors pronounced her death. A number of other people were also injured in the accident, many of whom were also on vacation in the country. Two of the other people injured were in serious condition.

The hotel was catering to a large group of Chareidi visitors including the Kretchnifer Rebbe, who since the accident has secluded himself to pray on behalf of Bassis, her family and the others injured.

Bechadrei Charedim quoted one of the vacationers as saying: “People here are in shock. I personally know the deceased, she was a truly righteous woman who had a good heart. Everyone here knew her and it is a big shock for all of us.”

Currently it is not yet known when or where the funeral will be held.

A volunteer with Zaka, Yehuda Shapira, who happened to be in the area witnessed the accident and immediately stopped to provide aid. “The highway where the accident took place is very winding and a dangerous road. I was traveling along behind the car that was involved and I saw the accident while I was driving. I immediately stopped to provide first aid. One woman was unconscious when I arrived and others suffered various injuries. They were all transported to the hospital in varying conditions. The vehicles were completely destroyed. Medical teams who arrived quickly to the area began CPR on the woman who was was in traumatic arrest. I then began to deal with the body at the scene. I contacted the Director of the International department for Zaka Motti Goldstein, who worked together with the French branch of Zaka to deal with the internal bureaucracy here in order to allow us to deal with the body in a halachically permissible manner.”

Zaka is working with the Crisis Center of the Foreign Ministry in order to obtain a writ negating the need for an autopsy and to fly the body back to Israel for burial as soon as possible.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)