Charges Filed Against Mercedes Driver in Fatal Netanya Police Officer Crash

About a year after a crash in Netanya that killed Master Sgt. Yaniv Elkayam, the State Prosecutor’s Office has filed an indictment in the Central District Court in Lod against 21-year-old Daniel Yevchenko for causing death by recklessness. The indictment, submitted last week by attorney Yael Terem of the Central District Prosecutor’s Office, also seeks to suspend his driver’s license until the criminal proceedings are finished.

According to the indictment, Elkayam was on traffic enforcement duty with another police officer from the Netanya station when they stopped a driver for a traffic violation. While Elkayam stood beside the stopped vehicle, Yevchenko was allegedly driving a Mercedes at excessive speed and in a dangerous manner, weaving between lanes and making risky overtakes. Prosecutors say that before the fatal moment he drove 66 kph in a 50 kph zone, used a left-turn-only lane to continue straight, then cut to the right lane, accelerated to 76 kph, and kept changing lanes without any need to do so.

The indictment says he later reached 99 kph, moved from the center lane to the right lane, and slammed into the vehicle stopped at the roadside next to Elkayam. “Yaniv was thrown into the air and onto the road,” the charging document states. He suffered severe head and body injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the stopped car was also injured and taken to hospital, and Yevchenko’s car then hit another vehicle before coming to a stop in the middle of the road.

The prosecution says Elkayam was killed while performing his duties and that Yevchenko created an unreasonable risk of causing death by driving above the speed limit and shifting lanes in a way that endangered road users. Elkayam, 42, left behind a wife and four children. After the crash, his colleagues described him as a devoted officer, a shift commander and a pleasant person who could be relied on. In a video published after the accident, he said the Netanya station was his “home” and his “calling.” Yevchenko’s detention was extended several times after the crash, and he told the court, “I’m sorry. I’m not taking this lightly, really.”