An amended indictment will be filed against Y.Y. (name on file) on Thursday, 12 Elul. He is the driver who drove the Bernstein family in August of 2010 and during that trip got into a fatal accident that claimed the lives of seven family members R”L.

This was the fatal train collision with a minibus at a railroad crossing north of Kiryat Gat.

Defense attorney Yigal Tamir succeeded in significantly reducing the severity of the indictment, which originally could have led to Y.Y. serving 21 years in prison. Tamir succeeded in shifting much of the blame for the fatal accident from his client to the train operator and the Ministry of Transportation.

Under the plea bargain, Y.Y. faces six months community service up to two years imprisonment. This is the result of the many faults detected in the operation of Israel Railways and the ministry during the probe into the crash including the fact the railway failed to install an electronic mechanism that should have warned the train operator of the vehicle on the tracks.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)