A vehicle breaks into the tracks at a road junction in Lod Train brakes emergency braking (Israel Railways)
Last night, a vehicle crossed a continuous separation line and broke into the area of the junction of the railway road in Lod after activating all the warning measures and a few seconds before the train passed. The train driver performed emergency braking. Due to the long stopping distance of the train, it was not enough to reach the stop, but disaster was averted.
The incident took place in Ramesh at around 22:00 P.M. at the junction of the road-track near the Lod station. A vehicle crossed a continuous separation line in order to bypass the barrier that descended towards the train crossing, and broke into the meeting area after all warning measures were activated, a few seconds before the train passed through the junction.
The Israel Railways Safety Center alerted the train driver to the emergency procedure, which began with emergency braking. However, due to the stopping distance of a train, which is close to a kilometer, the train did not manage to reach a full stop. There were several dozen passengers on the train at the time who experienced severe braking.
Level separation at Habonim Beach, which was inaugurated last year, 37 years after the disaster in which 22 people were killed there (Photo: Israel Railways)
Due to the incident, there were slight delays in train traffic, which returned to normal shortly thereafter. The details of the vehicle were passed on to the Israel Police. The penalty for such an offense is a subpoena, which grants the driver 10 mandatory points even before the punishment imposed by the judge, and the possibility for a police officer to confiscate the vehicle involved for 30 days.
Israel Railways notes that these incidents, together with the great risk they pose to road users and train passengers, cause thousands of minutes of cumulative delay to passenger trains, and significant cumulative damage to service throughout the country.
It should be noted that the railway junction in question, in the middle of a large city, is a major nuisance, both for drivers and pedestrians wishing to cross it, and for trains that are forced to slow towards it for safety reasons, which prolongs their travel times. The Ministry of Transport and Israel Railways, together with the Ayalon Highway Company, are working to implement a level separation and cancel the meeting in question. The plans for the construction of the level separation are currently in advanced planning stages, with work expected to begin in about two years.
The move is part of a strategic plan to cancel meetings and build level separations approved by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, carried out by Israel Railways and other infrastructure companies. As part of this program, about 70 meetings have been canceled over the past decade, more than half of the meetings that existed at the time the program began, including Nitzanim, Karmiel, Kfar Yehoshua, Kfar Chabad, Ronit Farm, Maayan Tzvi, Shefayim, and more.
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