James Dean 36, the First Secretary of the US Embassy, was killed and 11 other persons were injured nine seriously, when a bus carrying foreign diplomats and their families overturned last night on the Mitzpah Ramon-Beersheba road. The group was returning from a week-long tour of Sinai.
Police investigating the tragedy attributed it to a heavy sandstorm that swept over southern and central Israel yesterday. Roads in the Negev were blocked for miles by sand dunes and visibility was almost zero. The injured included Allyson Smith, 16 daughter of the Australian Ambassador and her mother, Jeanette Smith and Vaughn McPhearson of the British Embassy.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
