Nine people were injured, including one seriously and another moderately, when a minibus overturned and fell onto the roadside on Route 353 near Sarigim, close to Beit Shemesh, early Thursday morning, Magen David Adom (MDA) stated.
MDA's Jerusalem dispatch center received the accident report at 6:03 a.m. Firefighters from the Beit Shemesh station were dispatched to the scene, where they found nine young passengers trapped inside the vehicle and unable to free themselves.
Firefighters worked to extricate the passengers, successfully rescuing all nine and transferring them to medical personnel for treatment.
According to MDA, a man in his 30s was seriously injured, while an 18-year-old sustained moderate injuries to multiple parts of his body. Seven other passengers sustained light injuries.
The seriously injured man received medical treatment that included sedation and ventilation, while the moderately injured passenger was treated with bandaging and immobilization. MDA ambulances evacuated all nine casualties to Hadassah-University Medical Center, in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem.
Incident commander Zacharia Rafael described the firefighters' response.
MDA, firefighters worked to rescue all nine trapped passengers from minibus
"Upon arriving at the scene, we identified a minibus that had fallen onto the roadside, with nine people trapped inside. We acted quickly and professionally to rescue all the passengers and transfer them to medical personnel for treatment," Rafael said.
MDA emergency medical technician Yosef Horowitz also described the rescue and medical response.
"We received a report of a single-vehicle minibus accident. When we arrived at the scene, we saw the minibus overturned on its side and all the passengers nearby. All the injured were fully conscious," Horowitz said.
"We began an initial assessment. A man in his 30s and a young man around 18 had sustained serious and moderate injuries, respectively. We provided the seriously injured man with medical treatment, including sedation and ventilation, while the moderately injured young man received bandaging and immobilization.
"Additional MDA teams provided medical treatment to seven people with light injuries. We evacuated all the injured to hospitals in MDA ambulances while continuing medical treatment," he added.