Israeli demonstrators demand action against road accidents

JERUSALEM, June 8 (JTA) — Demonstrators gathered this week to demand more funds and better law enforcement to prevent traffic accidents in Israel. Sunday’s protest outside Transportation Minister Yitzhak Levy’s office came in the wake of a June 5 accident in which five members of a wedding party, including the groom and his parents, were killed on their way to the wedding. Uri Pell, his parents Claudine and Eli, as well as two of Uri’s friends, David Benishu and Ayal Yunanian, were killed when their car overturned on a Jordan Valley road as they were traveling to Moshav Hazorim near Tiberias. The Pells, who had immigrated to Israel from France in the 1980s, lived in Jerusalem. When the five failed to turn up by nightfall last week, Jewish Agency chairman Avraham Burg, a relative of the family, contacted security officials to begin searches. Palestinian Authority police also took part in searches on the chance that the five were in the Jericho self-rule area. Helicopters spotted the car last Friday morning in a ravine. The car had apparently tumbled off the road and was not visible from the highway. Police said it appeared that the driver of the car had been speeding and lost control of the car.