A tragedy occurred in Israel early Sunday morning amid heavy Hezbollah rocket fire at northern Israel when a deadly car accident occurred amid blaring rocket sirens.

A 20-year-old yeshivah bochur driving near Ramat Yishai apparently panicked at the sound of the sirens and veered off the highway, hitting the barrier. The accident killed one of the passengers, a 17-year-old yeshivah bochur.

MDA paramedics were forced to declare the death of the bochur at the scene. The driver was moderately to severely injured and was evacuated to Rambam Hospital in Haifa. The two others were lightly injured.

The niftar was later identified as Noam Yechiel, z’l, from Achiezer, a moshav in central Israel. He was a talmid of Yeshivas Bnei Yissachar in Hadera. He was on the way to yeshivah with a group of friends after spending Shabbos at Meron for the Sheva Brachos of a friend.

The niftar, z’l, is the son of a famous singer and chazan, Erez Yechiel. In the video below, Noam, z’l, is singing, with his father (with the beard) sitting next to him.

Brig.-Gen. Chilik Sofer of the Home Front Command spoke to Ynet about what to do in case of a siren while driving: “When we hear a siren while driving, the first thing we should do is slow down. That’s the most important thing. Then we should try to stop on the side of the road. Even if we can’t come to a complete stop, the fact that we’re slowing down helps. If a rocket were to hit, for example, a hundred meters away from us and we’re driving at high speed, we could end up in a cloud of shrapnel, and then we could really lose control and have an accident. So, we need to slow down, pull over to the side of the road, turn off the engine, get out, lie down, and pay attention to those ten minutes. Those ten minutes can save lives due to rocket barrages as well as the shrapnel from interceptions.”

Israel Police stated: “Israel Police have opened an investigation into the circumstances of a single-vehicle accident that occurred on Route 77 between the Yishi Interchange and the Zarzir Interchange. As a result of the accident, one of the vehicle’s passengers (a 17-year-old resident of central Israel) was pronounced dead, and four other passengers were injured, with wounds ranging from mild to moderate.

“Officers and traffic accident investigators from the Northern District are currently at the scene and have begun investigating the circumstances of the case, with initial suspicions suggesting that the accident may have happened while the alarms were sounding in the north this morning.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)