The military attorney's office is considering canceling an indictment filed against Amri Koffler, a senior prosecutor in the state attorney's office, for causing the death of an elderly woman by negligent driving on a city road.
The reason: the traffic accident examiner on behalf of the police admitted during his testimony in the traffic court in Petah Tikva, that he facilitated with the attorney throughout the reconstruction and calculations.
The accident took place at noon today, on February 27, 2023, on the Ramataim road in Hod Hasharon.
According to the indictment, the woman, Esther Mizrahi, 88 years old, was crossing the crosswalk when a red light appeared at the traffic light intended for pedestrians at the intersection.
Koffler, according to the indictment, "continued driving straight, did not notice the elderly woman at all, and collided with her forcefully with the front of the vehicle."
It was also claimed that he was traveling at a higher speed than the limit.
Mizrahi, who suffered from multi-system damage, was rushed to Beilinson Hospital - where she was pronounced dead.
The late Esther Mizrahi,
"The defendant drove recklessly, negligently and with a lack of regard for human life," the indictment reads.
"He drove the vehicle without taking the necessary measures to avoid risk or injury to the rest, did not slow down the vehicle's speed before crossing the crosswalk, did not brake the vehicle while he could have noticed the rest, and did not allow her to complete the crossing of the road safely."
In light of this, Koffler was also accused of driving at an unreasonable speed and not slowing down.
The traffic accident examiner testified in court that he was easy with the attorney regarding his driving speed, the rate at which the elderly lady resting on the road crossed the road and the driver's reaction time - and despite this, the indictment was filed against Koffler.
"Discounts" in the file
This is the first time that a serving attorney is accused in Israel.
Since Koffler works at the State Attorney's Office, the case was transferred to the Military Prosecutor's Office - and it decided on the filing of the indictment against him.
The person who investigated the accident on behalf of the police is traffic accident examiner Sergeant Shmuel Shalman from the Sharon area. Shalman went to investigate the scene of the accident, made calculations and made a reconstruction after talking with Koffler at the station, according to his testimony.
Koepler in court,
In recent days, the examiner Shloman testified in the case.
According to his testimony, he was very easy with Koffler in his findings, and even tried to avoid recommending the filing of an indictment against him.
According to the testimony, Sergeant Shalman "made various assumptions" in various parameters in the case for Koffler - for example, in connection with the pace of the deceased Mizrahi crossing the road. According to his calculation, she crossed the road slowly and thus Koffler had more time to notice her. But in the accident file he wrote The examiner said that the crossing time was faster. "I gave a walking pace of 1.1," he testified. "I also want to add that throughout the reconstruction, in every figure here, I came toward the driver.
And I will explain: the speed limit on the road is 40 km/h and I did the reconstruction at 60 km/h.
Walking rate 0.8, I gave him 1.1".
Do him a favor
But the deliberate biases in the examiner's work did not end there, according to his testimony.
Shlaman testified about the driver's reaction time in the accident.
According to the calculations he made, Koffler required a faster reaction time - but the accident file intentionally stated a slower reaction time - to present a presentation according to which Koffler's degree of negligence was less.
In his testimony, the examiner was asked: "Confirm for me that you determined that the reaction time of a driver approaching the intersection, that is, of the accused, is 1.6 seconds."
The examiner: "True, even though he is less. I gave the maximum I can give. Here too I came to meet him. I should have given him 1.05 so I gave him 1.6."
"Did you do him a favor?"
he was asked.
The examiner: "Obviously. I came for this whole reconstruction, all the calculations."
The examiner also testified about the speed at which Koffler was driving on the road.
According to his testimony, Koffler drove at a speed of more than 80 km/h on a road where the speed limit is 40 km/h - this after he made a calculation at what speed the accident would have been avoided.
In practice, the accident file states that Koffler was traveling at a speed of 50 to 60 km/h. "We also do not have the speed of the vehicle, which was traveling over 80 km/h when the speed limit is 40 km/h," Shlaman testified. "According to the quadratic equation we did , if he had traveled less than 83 km/h, the accident would have been avoided."
Omri Koffler, photo: Yossi Zeliger
According to the examiner, if he had determined that Koffler was driving at the permitted speed, i.e. 40 km/h, it would have worked against him, because he had more time to notice Mizrahi. In other words, he set the speed between 40 km/h and 80 km/h in order to hit as many Slaves in Kupler.
"I came to meet him, throughout the reconstruction I came to meet him, and he still came out unscathed," Shlaman testified.
"If I do it according to the speed limit, then his negligence will be greater."
"You did the mathematical reconstruction at a speed of 60 km/h, right?" he was asked.
Examiner: "Correct".
"Why?".
The examiner: "Because I came towards him. The lower the speed, the worse it is. It's not good for the accused. The slower he drove, it's not good for him."
The examiner testified that he tried to avoid recommending the filing of an indictment against the senior attorney and was forced to do so without a choice: "This whole reconstruction really lowered the rope in favor of the accused, in all the parameters I could, to see what I was doing with this accident. But the numbers that came out are terribly unusual numbers , very high, as if I had no choice but to recommend what I recommended."
"Professional and thorough investigation"
An IDF spokesman said (on behalf of the military attorney's office): "These days, the case is undergoing an evidentiary process.
In view of the evidentiary developments that occurred during the hearing of the witnesses in the case, it was decided to hold a mediation procedure before the traffic court where the case is being conducted."
The Israel Police responded: "Naturally, we are prevented from commenting on the details that are currently being discussed as part of an ongoing legal proceeding, but we note that the Israel Police conducted a professional and thorough investigation into the traffic accident that occurred in Hod Hasharon, and at the end of it, all the material was transferred to the military prosecutor's office, which decided to file charges against the driver." .
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us