Tragedy on the Tracks: Remembering the Israeli Bus-Train Accident

On June 11, 1985, a bus left "Brenner" School in Petah Tikva carrying 38 passengers—most of them students—setting out on a school trip.

The bus stopped at a railroad crossing near the moshav of Bnei Berak, where there was neither a barrier nor traffic lights. For reasons that remain unclear, the bus began to cross the tracks without noticing the approaching train, traveling at a relatively slow speed. The train conductor saw the bus and attempted to brake—but a collision was unavoidable.

The disaster claimed 22 lives: 19 schoolchildren, one teacher, the bus driver, and a chaperone. Sixteen more students were injured. Among the train passengers, who experienced a slight derailment, only one person was lightly injured.

Known as the Bnei Berak disaster, this became the deadliest train accident in the nation's history and the second in terms of casualties (years earlier, 29 people were killed in a train-bus collision in Tzrifin).