An empty bus rolled down a hill after it was parked near a camp site where a number of high-school students were camping out during their selection trials for elite units in the IDF. The accident took place near the paratroopers training base in the northern Negev region on Thursday evening.

The IDF on Friday named the teen killed as Ron Eliyahu Oved, 18, from Palmachim in the center of the country. Five other trainees were also injured in the accident and transported to Soroka hospital via helicopter. Two of the five were in moderate condition, while the other three were lightly injured. Volunteers from United Hatzalah, ambulance teams from Magen David Adom and IDF medical personnel were at the scene.

The bus driver has been detained by police for questioning as part of their investigation into the incident. The driver was outside of the bus at the time when it began to roll down-hill towards the trainees. The injured boys were inside of a tent and could not see the bus coming towards them. Those outside the tent screamed that the boys inside should run flee the tent, but most of them did not make it out of the tent in time.

On Friday, a lawyer for the driver said he had gone to use the bathroom and left the bus parked using the handbrake but the bus gears were set to “drive.”

“The driver claims that he does not remember changing gear,” explained attorney Raz Keren Yehoshua. “The bus was running, he started it a few minutes earlier for the soldiers to board. When he was in the bathroom, he heard shouts and saw the bus.”

A statement from Soroka Hospital said that the boys were suffering from injuries to their limbs and abdomen and that they were all conscious and in the trauma unit.

Worried parents flocked to the base and were met with IDF officers who did not relay many details. The IDF contacted all of the families of the injured boys directly.

(YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem)