BREAKING NEWS

Judge orders house arrest for bus driver accused of killing 6

FEBRUARY 17, 2016 19:45

Updated: FEBRUARY 18, 2016 01:32

A Jerusalem Traffic Court judge released an Egged bus driver suspected of causing a devastating wreck on Sunday night to 21 days’ house arrest.

Six people were dead and several more were injured in the accident near the Latrun junction.

Judge Naeel Mohana found “there is significant evidence that the suspect’s conduct caused the accident, in that he didn’t keep sufficient distance from the truck that was on the side of the road following a technical malfunction.”

In court on Monday, police said that they determined that in the 40 minutes between the time of the crash and his arrest, driver Haim Bitton managed to remove the tachograph of the bus, which records the vehicle’s speed.

They were not able to say in court if Bitton was able to alter the findings of the apparatus, however.

The accident took place on Route 1 from Jerusalem to Bnei Brak.

Bitton’s No. 402 bus collided with a large flatbed truck parked on the shoulder.

A crane affixed to the bed of the truck gutted the entire right side of the bus, killing or injuring everyone seated on that side of the vehicle.

The accident wasn’t the first involving Bitton on that route. In December 2013 he hit a truck from behind not far from the site of Sunday’s crash, injuring 18 passengers.

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