On Sunday morning at around 7:00 a.m., a fatal two-car accident occurred near the Kiryat Gat interchange on highway 6, leaving one person dead and two others lightly injured.
A vehicle for road construction stood on the side of the highway near the Junction. The worker, a 26-year-old man, was standing next to his vehicle when a passing car crashed into it. The force of the crash sent the worker flying into the underbrush on the side of the road. The other two men involved in the accident, one inside the vehicle for road construction, and the other in the car that crashed, sustained light injuries.
United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs, Shlomy Badichi and Yehuda Wertheimer, were driving together to work in Ohr Yehuda when they were called to help at the scene of the accident. As usual, they didn’t have even a moment’s hesitation before heading to the scene.
When the EMTs arrived, they split up. Shlomy headed over to the paramedic leaning over the limp body on the side of the roadway and Yehuda went to see what he could do for the passengers in their cars.
“I asked the paramedic if there was anything we could do to help the man, but unfortunately, due to the severe injuries from which he suffered, the victim passed away on the scene, and there was nothing we could do to help him,” Shlomy said.
Shlomy joined Yehuda who was treating the injured by the cars. “The victims were bleeding from scratches and cuts all over their bodies.” Shlomy explained, “We took their vitals then bandaged up the deeper and more severe wounds.”
Yehuda continued, “Most of our efforts were put into calming the victims and relieving their stress. Like most people after a traumatic accident, they were quite shaken up and didn’t understand what had happened. They were in a bad mental state and needed care, so we utilized our basic Psychotrauma and Crisis Response training and stabilized them on scene. This is why the Psychotrauma training that we go through is so important. We implement our training in most of the incidents we respond to.”
Shlomy concluded, “This morning’s accident ended sadly, may we only hear good news in the future.”
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