Driver, 21, killed after his car hits a pole in Nof HaGalil

A 21-year-old man died after the car he was driving struck a pole on Ma'ale Yitzhak Boulevard in Nof HaGalil, a city in northern Israel. According to the spokesperson's office of Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's national emergency medical service, the call came in at 00:31 to the 101 emergency line handled by its Gilboa region dispatch centre, reporting a private vehicle that had collided with a pole.

MDA said its paramedics and medics found the young man with no pulse and not breathing, suffering injuries to multiple body systems, and pronounced him dead. N12 reported that rescue forces had to use hydraulic tools to extract him from the vehicle. Ynet reported that he had been trapped inside the car with severe injuries.

What the first responders described

Three members of the MDA crew who reached the scene gave an account carried by N12: paramedic Omer Daaif and medics Vered Basharat and Naftali Pasin. They said that when they arrived the man was pinned in his car, unconscious, and had very serious injuries across several parts of his body. They carried out medical checks, they said, but the extent of his injuries left them no option other than to declare his death on the spot.

Ynet quoted an MDA team describing the scene as "very difficult" and saying the young man had been trapped with serious wounds before they were forced to pronounce him dead.

Who responded

Magen David Adom functions as Israel's ambulance and emergency medical service and is the country's member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Calls to 101, its national emergency number, are routed to regional dispatch centres; this one was handled by the centre covering the Gilboa region, which takes in parts of the Jezreel Valley and the Lower Galilee. MDA routinely publishes short statements on serious incidents through its spokesperson's office, giving the time a call was received, the location and the condition of those treated.

N12 credited its photograph of the scene to Israel's fire and rescue service. In Israel, firefighters are generally responsible for freeing people trapped in vehicles after a crash, which is the extraction N12 described, while MDA crews provide the medical care.

Where it happened

Nof HaGalil, whose name means "view of the Galilee", is a city in Israel's Northern District, set on the hills beside Nazareth. It was known for decades as Upper Nazareth (Natzrat Illit in Hebrew) before adopting its current name. Ma'ale Yitzhak Boulevard, where the crash took place, is a road within the city.

How the reports differ

The accounts agree on the main facts: the man's age, the location, the collision with a pole and that he was declared dead at the scene. They differ on small details. MDA and Ynet refer simply to a pole, while N12 specified that it was an electricity pole. N12's first flash described the victim as a man; a revised version issued shortly afterwards called him a young man, matching the wording used by MDA and Ynet. Ynet and N12 both indicate that he was the driver of the car.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports names the man or says where he was from. None says what caused the car to hit the pole, whether any other vehicle was involved, or whether anyone else was in the car. No statement from the Israel Police about an investigation into the circumstances of the crash has been reported, and none of the organisations says whether the road was closed or for how long.