The outpouring of grief during the funeral of Maran Harav Rav Shmuel Wosner, zt’l, which resulted in the tragic trampling of mourners, has spurred the United Hatzalah organization to call for an urgent meeting of relevant communal organizations in the chareidi community.
“There have been much larger and more challenging funerals that have occurred in daylight and in the heat of the Bnei Brak summer. This (funeral) was not a particularly dangerous environment. All communal and rescue organizations should review their procedures and planning for these types of events in order to avoid preventable tragedies,” said United Hatzalah Chairman Zev Kashash.
During the course of the funeral, hundreds of United Hatzalah volunteers on foot, ambucycle, and ambulance treated 113 people for various injuries. The severest injuries occurred when the actual procession tried to exit the narrow exit of Yeshiva Chochmei Lublin, and many in the crowd tried to rush forward in order to get a final view of the revered rabbinical sage. The scene was initially only accessible by ambucycle medics and volunteers on foot who waded through the teeming crowd to reach the injured parties. At one point multiple agencies were working together on three simultaneous resuscitations. The United Hatzalah ambucycles also played a vital role in clearing paths for the ambulances to and from the hectic scene.
United Hatzalah volunteers were also on scene to accompany the trampled victim, Rabbi Mordechai Gerber, zt’l, from to his home in Elad to his burial in the Segula Cemetary in Petach Tikva.
