Father falls to death saving son who slipped during desert hike

A lovely, clear Friday after days of rain turned dark for a group of parents and children from Kfar Vitkin in the Sharon region of Israel, after one father fell to his death trying to save his 10-year-old son, who slipped during a hike along a popular route in the Judean Desert.

A total of 15 families, with each child accompanied by a parent, from Moshav Kfar Vitkin arrived at Kfar Hanokdim in the desert at around 9 a.m. From there, the group headed out for the Tze'elim stream, which runs through a ravine, intending to visit the Tsfira spring.

"When we got to the spot, the parents and kids started to climb down a ladder" to the ravine, recounts Udi Segal, 50, one of the parents who was on the hike.

"I climbed down first with another father, to make sure that everyone got down safely. At a certain point I heard a loud thump. One of the kids had slipped and was falling off the ladder -- on his father. The [other] kids were still up top, and they all saw the disaster as it was happening," Segal says.

The other parents present explained that Dr. Omri Nir, a lecturer in Islamic history and Middle Eastern studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, saw his son, Elai, slip off the bars of the ladder affixed to the cliff. In an attempt to save his son, Nir jumped down after him and wrapped himself around the boy to protect him. As a result, Nir took most of the impact from rocks and boulders that fell with them. Elai Nir survived the fall but suffered blows to his head and back, and had to be helicoptered to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.

One parent who was acting as the medic for the trip ran to Nir and Elai after they hit the ground. At this point, Nir was still alive.

"The parent who was a medic signaled me that he [Nir] was still alive and that we needed water. The boy was in bad shape. I reached the father and his son. While I was shouting at the parents to call for help and rescue, I tried to talk with the boy, but he was unresponsive and barely conscious," Segal says.

The parents still on top of the cliff tried to contact search and rescue services, but had difficulty because of the poor reception in the area. It took more than 15 minutes for one of them to finally get through. Other parents took care to move their children away from the edge of the cliff.

As the group was waiting for the search and rescue team, the accident was reported in the media, without names, causing panic among the families from Kfar Vitkin who had stayed behind.

"They were hysterical. Lots of mothers started calling, which made the hysteria worse," Segal says.

A member of the search and rescue team said that when the team arrived, Nir and Elai were lying a few dozen yards from each other, an indication of the force with which they fell and hit the ground.

Meanwhile, the other parents were trying to calm their children as well as field calls from other worried parents at home.

Half an hour after the accident, a helicopter from the Israeli Air Force 669 Search and Rescue Unit arrived. After intensive efforts, Elai was the first to be evacuated. At this point, it was clear that his father had been killed. His body lay there for some eight hours before it was evacuated.

Dr. Yuval Cavari, a senior doctor at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Soroka Medical Center, said that Elai had arrived at the hospital with bruises all over his body. After he was initially stabilized, he was transferred for more thorough diagnosis, which revealed that he had suffered serious blows to his head and spinal cord. The doctors worked all weekend to stabilize him, but starting Saturday afternoon the boy's condition worsened. As of Sunday morning, he was listed in critical condition.

Although the hike Friday that ended tragically was a private expedition organized by families, questions have arisen about whether it is safe for organized school field trips to take the Tze'elim stream hike. The Education Ministry said Saturday that there was no regulation in place that prohibited school hikes at the site.

According to the ministry, school principals were responsible for organizing field trips, based on a preapproved list of destinations, which includes Tze'elim.

Director of the Kfar Etzion Field School Yaron Rosenthal said that "field trips organized by the Education Ministry are careful about matching the hike to the students' age. Schools need to confirm the routes with the Education Ministry."

"The [school] system has a mechanism that limits hikes according to age. For example, most routes in the Judean Desert wouldn't be approved for children in the fourth grade," Rosenthal said.

The children on Friday's hike ranged in age from six to 10. Elai Nir was one of the older children in the group.

Rosenthal said that "the whole matter of safety regulations is an important subject that we are careful about. This disaster increases the sense of responsibility that we have for the students we take on hikes."

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו