The scene of the accident
Photo: MDA Operational Documentation
IDF officer suspected of drunk driving, lethal hit-and-run accident
Captain Ino Tadesa, 29, of Hadera will remanded until Monday by Rishon LeZion Magistrates' Court for alleged drunk driving, hit-and-run accident that claimed the life of a cyclist in his seventies; police representative claims in court Tadesa drove for 2.5km, refused sobriety test; his attorneys counters by claiming he attempted to revive victim.
A 29-year-old IDF officer from Hadera is suspected of being involved Saturday in a hit-and-run accident, as well as of driving while intoxicated. The officer was arrested after allegedly hitting and killing a cyclist in his seventies earlier in the day in the Sharon's Highway 4.
The Rishon LeZion Magistrates' Court remanded late Saturday the officer, revealed to be Captain Ino Tadesa, until Monday. The officer's family were present at the hearing.
The police representative, who sought to extend Tadesa's remand by a further five days, said during the hearing, "The young man was partying throughout the entire evening and night and drove without sleeping a wink. He diverted right to the road's shoulders, hit the cyclist and then didn't stop, driving forward for two and a half kilometers."
The scene of the accident, where an IDF officer is suspected of drunkenly hitting and killing an elderly man and then escaping (Photo: MDA Operational Documentation)
Tadesa is suspected of driving while intoxicated, on which the police's representative commented, "The suspect refused to undergo a sobriety test despite being made aware of the ramifications of such a refusal. His breath smelled strongly of alcohol. He was checked at the Meir Hospital several hours later and the results of a lab test have yet to be received."
Attorney Hertzel Hen, who represents Tadesa, who is an army engineer, claimed his client assisted and treated the victim. The police's representative interjected to note he only did so after escaping the scene, and only later returning.
"Police grotesquely over-inflated the charges against my client," Hen said. "This is evidenced by the court's decision to remand him (for a lesser period than the one demanded by police).
Captain Ino Tadesa in court (Photo: Yariv Katz)
"He doesn't know how it all happened. Our account states that he drove forward 60 to 100 meters, and then returned to attempt to resuscitate the man along with someone else present at the scene.
"The suspect's hands were bloodied at the scene from his attempts to revive the wounded."
Police initially said Tadesa was also suspected of not providing help, not reporting an accident to the police and diverting from his lane. The driver allegedly carried on driving after hitting the elderly man with the victim's bicycle dragged underneath his car.
Captain Tadesa was remanded until Monday (Photo: Yariv Katz)
He is said to have then made a U-turn at the next junction and carried on driving, until witnesses alerted him to the fact that he had hit the man, at which point he stopped.
Police's suspicions were aroused after the vehicle—and the bicycle underneath it—were found in the southbound lanes and not in the northbound ones, where the accident occurred.
Another elderly man was killed falling off his bicycle in the Nir Moshe Forest (Photo: MDA spokesmanship)
Magen David Adom paramedic David Shusman recounted, "A man was lying unconscious on the side of the road with serious multi-systemic trauma. We performed several medical checks on him but found no signs of life, and were forced to pronounce him dead shortly thereafter."
In another incident Saturday morning, a 65-year-old cyclist was killed after he was injured while riding through the Nir Moshe Forest near Netivot. A Magen David Adom team was rushed to the scene and said he had suffered a head injury, and pronounced him dead when resuscitation attempts failed.
