Five persons were killed and II severely injured in a traffic accident in the Negev over the Succoth weekend. Police said a truck carrying about 50 passengers from Ramat Gan on a sightseeing trip lost its brakes on a steep grade and careened into a deep gully at Maale Akrabim on a lonely stretch of desert.
A 14-year-old boy, one of the survivors, walked for two hours to find help. Rescue crews joined by soldiers, police and a medical team worked for hours to extricate trapped passengers from the wreckage. Helicopters were used to rush the injured to a hospital in Beersheba.
The accident was the second tragedy at Maale Akrabim. In 1955 an Egged bus bound from Tel Aviv to Eilat was ambushed by Arab terrorists who massacred most of its passengers.
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