A crowded passenger train plowed into a huge coal truck Tuesday, sending three train cars flying off the tracks into a sunflower field, AP reports.
Five people were pronounced dead at the scene and two others died later at hospitals, police said, and 191 people were injured, several of them critically - including a baby and a 19-year-old female soldier. Passengers were thrown dozens of meters from cars and others were trapped in the wreckage when the train from the northern city of Haifa to southern Beersheba hit the truck at a dirt road crossing in farmland near Kibbutz Revadim, according to Reuters. Police said they believed the truck driver was dead.
The passenger train, carrying 300 to 400 people from Tel Aviv to the southern city of Beersheba, was traveling as fast as 130 kph (80 mph) when it hit the 40 tons truck about 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) on a remote section of the track that contained a crossing but no traffic light. Israeli Radio, cited by AP, said the truck driver had been working for 30 hours straight. According to Israeli TV, hospitals are responding to the accident as if it was a terror attack with multiple victims.
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