Drowning in the elevator: The police have asked experts to investigate the circumstances of the disaster

Police have appealed to the court to appoint technical experts to check compliance with the standards, in order to find out the circumstances of the deaths of two young people in an elevator in the underground parking lot in Tel Aviv. The investigation is being conducted against the backdrop of the families of the victims. Firefighters and rescue are investigating the rescue operations

Drowning in the elevator: The police have asked experts to investigate the circumstances of the disaster

Police turned to the court on Monday to request experts to investigate the circumstances of the Tel Aviv disaster, in which two young men were killed after being stuck in an elevator in a parking lot in the Hatikva neighborhood. Experts from the technical field will assist in examining compliance with the various elevator construction standards, as part of an investigation conducted by the Tel Aviv District Fraud Department, and accompanied by the State Attorney's Office.

The perpetrators, the 25-year-old Dean Shoshani and the mountainous 25-year-old, were brought to rest yesterday in the Yarkonim Cemetery in Petah Tikva after being rescued from the elevator, which was trapped underground. The building owners accused the municipality of not draining the sewer and causing a major flood in the neighborhood that also swept into the parking lot.

More about the elevator disaster in Tel Aviv:

Drowned to death in an elevator stuck in the underground car park. Dean and Fall (Photo: Courtesy of the family)

Dean Shoshani and Autumn Mountains Young Drowning in Death in the Elevator Flood in the Hope Area, Tel Aviv, January 4, 2019 (Photo: courtesy of the family)

The police investigation comes against the backdrop of criticism directed at the police, as well as the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality and the rescue forces. Yesterday, the families of the dead made allegations against them: "How come no one has come to talk to the family yet? No official - no one from the municipality or the police, tell us what happened."

The family added that "the infrastructure in the neighborhood has not been maintained for years - the municipality's carelessness of the residents of this neighborhood. It is a criminal neglect. How is it that it took the rescue forces so long? How did such a new building get any permits?"

Yesterday, Fire and Rescue Commissioner Daddy Happy brought a senior professional team to investigate the rescue of the disaster, Dean Shoshani and Harari Fall. The team led by Deputy Southern District Deputy Superintendent Zion Shankor will examine, among other things, how the Emergency Call Center and the dispatch of forces, the movement of forces to the destination and how the firefighting and rescue teams operate.

The experts will check compliance with the construction standards. Rescue forces in the arena, two days ago (Photo: Firefighting and Rescue)

Drowning in an elevator in Tel Aviv (Photo: Fire and Rescue)

An internal investigation of the fire and rescue system revealed the emergency center loads and the long wait time for the rescue forces to arrive. An investigation of the incident details shows that from 12:00 to 13:30, 2,735 calls were received at the hotline, with the hotlines only handling 200 of them.

Tenants presented their call details to the emergency centers, where they tried to alert the various rescue forces about the case - unanswered. The calls began as early as 12:23, so the emergency forces arrived only after 50 minutes - when they dealt with another fire on the same street, so the occupants had to go and call them physically. One of the calls to the Emergency Call Center was also defined as "an accidental opening event". In addition, 38 minutes passed from the arrival of a fire-fighting crew in the building opposite and until the fire department's flame forces arrived to rescue the couple.

Decades of Damage and Neglect Claims: The History of Tel Aviv Flooding