U.S. woman killed in bus crash insisted on writing out her will week before

The couple had “celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary last Thursday. That same day, Bertha insisted on writing out her will,” reports Arutz 7.

By World Israel News Staff 

A 71-year-old woman from Philadelphia was one of four people killed in a bus crash on Sunday near Ben Gurion International Airport.

Police said that they were investigating why the bus had suddenly swerved into a bus stop on Route 40, causing the concrete roof of the bus shelter to collapse on the vehicle.

Bertha Schwartz and her husband, Baruch, were visiting Israel on the occasion of the birth of their 18th grandchild, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

They were said to have been riding on the Egged 947 line from Jerusalem to Haifa after paying a visit to the Western Wall in the Israeli capital.

Baruch was sitting behind his wife on the bus and survived.

The couple had “celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary last Thursday. That same day, Bertha insisted on writing out her will,” reports Arutz 7.

“For more than half-an-hour, I searched for her. She was under the concrete,” the mourning husband told Israel Hayom.

A passenger told Israel’s Army Radio on Monday that the driver seemed not to be focused earlier in the ride.

Police said they were looking into whether the driver had been speaking on his phone or was otherwise distracted. The bus had set out from Jerusalem at 6:00 p.m., meaning that the trip was taking place after nightfall.

The driver was hurt but released from a hospital on Monday, after which he was arrested by police and ordered by a court to be held in custody for alleged negligent homicide.

Rescue workers were said to have worked for some four hours to extricate casualties from the scene.

Two other victims killed in the crash have been identified as Hayley Varenberg, 35, a resident of Jerusalem who had immigrated from Cape Town, South Africa in 2009, and 79-year-old Yosef Kahalani, who had lived in Petah Tikva, located in central Israel.

The name of the fourth fatality had not yet been released for publication on Tuesday morning.