During the opening ceremony of the 15th Maccabia Games, a bridge collapsed, killing 2 Australian athletes and injuring 66 people, 2 seriously. The rest of the injured were slightly to moderately injured.
The disaster occurred while the 376-member Australian delegation was crossing the bridge.
The injured were evacuated to the Tel Hashomer hospital in Ramat Gan and Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv.
The bridge crossed the Yarkon River between the Yarkon Park and the Ramat Gan Stadium, where the ceremony took place. The injured fell from the bridge into the water.
Ramat Gan’s mayor and the organizational committee decided to hold the opening ceremony as planned, despite the disaster.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed bitterness that the Maccabia Games continued this evening as planned.
This morning, 47 injured people are still detained in hospital, 7 of them in critical condition.
The two people killed in the accident were a 37 year old man from Sydney, and a 50 year old woman, also from Sydney.
The police this morning opened an investigation into the disaster. One of the first people to be summoned for questioning will be the engineer who approved the bridge for use.
According to the documents which the engineer signed, the bridge was supposed to be able to bear a load of 250 kg. per square metre. In yesterday’s conditions, when many people crowded onto the bridge, the weight it carried was in any case several times higher than this. Therefore, and it is important to stress that these are initial findings, it is highly likely that the bridge was not built for such a load even according to the documents which certified that it was built to standard.
Contact telephone numbers:
Israel: Tel Hashomer Hospital: 972-3-530 2521, 972-3-530 2313; Beilinson Hospital: 972-3-937 7377; Ichilov Hospital: 972-3-697 4444; Wolfson Hospital: 972-3-530 2251
Australia:Australian Consular Operations Centre - Canberra: 61-6-261 3305