Three Dead in Tel Aviv Collapse; Three Still Missing

Tel Aviv (TPS) – Two people were confirmed dead Tuesday following Monday’s collapse of a Tel Aviv parking structure, bringing the number of deaths to three. As of this writing, three people are still missing.

Some 500 officers and soldiers from the rescue and training brigade of the National Rescue Unit, in cooperation with civilian rescue organizations are still working to rescue and provide medical care to those trapped and injured in the incident. Rescue teams are using a wide range of advanced tools, including medical and logistics rescue equipment.

“Many forces continue the search and rescue effort, and we are  assisted by advanced technological search and rescue means. We will act until we have removed all those trapped in the rubble.”said National Rescue Unit Commander, Colonel (Ret) Dudi Mizrahi.

In light of numerous accidents and of the collapse of the parking lot, Labor and Welfare Minister Haim Katz called an emergency session of the Knesset Labor, Welfare and Health Committee Tuesday morning, to be attended by health and occupational safety managers, to discuss the issue of oversight in construction sites and safety measures in the construction industry.

According to a report issued by the Health and Occupational Safety direction of the Ministry of Labor and Welfare in mid-August,  28 people died in work-related accidents in the first half of 2016, a spike from 17 work deaths during the same period of 2015. The report also said that there were approximately 6800 inspection and enforcement reviews, including 660 safety orders and 1,194 improvement orders. The report did not specify the number of criminal investigations opened with regards to fatal accidents, nor the number of indictements filed.

“What is especially terrible is the fact that this disaster was predictable,” wrote MK Dov Chenin (Joint Arab List) on Facebook. “Dozens of workers have been killed in work-related accidents since the beginning of the year, which is not suprising considering there is only one inspector for every 700 construction sites.”

In explaining why decision makers often have trouble enforcing the worker safety regulations, Chenin cited Ministy of Finance officials: “If there is a choice to be made between acting against a factory that endangers its employees and harming stock prices – there will be considerable hesitation.

“So we have a serious problem of strictness in power. The government has systematically ignored all references, did not address any of the dead, evaded answering queries on the subject, and never appeared before the Knesset to respond to offers to arrange we raised. We need to establish a state commission to investigate legal violations in the construction sector.” he concluded.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled plans to attend the Israel-Italy soccer game Monday evening in order visit the site. “The forces here are working as quickly  and as professionally as possible to try to rescue those trapped. The main goal at present remains to save lives,” Netanyahu said in an official statement. “Our forces are operating according to a system that has been implemented around the world, however this is the first time our methods have been used in a building collapse scenario. That could also happen in other circumstances, such as missile attacks or earthquakes.”

The construction site of the collapsed parking lot belongs to the Danya Cebus company, which is a subsidiary of Africa Israel Investment Group. The company has been investigated three times in the past year for negligent safety standards on their construction sites and several of the company’s head are under criminal investigation. Danya Cebus maintains it is a law abiding company and that it will assist in any and all search and rescue efforts.