14 killed in Japan ski bus plunge
Print Edition
FOURTEEN people were killed and dozens injured when their bus plunged off a mountain road in Japan on its way to a ski resort, in the country’s worst such accident for 25 years.
Young skiers — many in their teens or early 20s — were asleep on the bus when it careened off the road before dawn in the resort town of Karuizawa.
“I heard people screaming ‘Oh no, oh no’ and then it hit the guard rail,” a 22-year-old college student told broadcaster NHK. “Injured people were everywhere. I had to cover my eyes at the scene.”
A 19-year-old survivor who was knocked unconscious in the crash told the broadcaster: “The bus was swaying right and left at massive speed. It was turning in an abnormal manner.”
He said the next thing he had been aware of was the carnage after the smash.
“Someone woke me up and I saw a number of people being carried on stretchers. I feel very sad and I still can’t imagine it was real.”
Television footage showed the wrecked vehicle on its side in woodland, several meters from the crash barrier through which it had smashed.
There was no snow or ice on the roads when the accident happened and attention was focused on the driver of the overnight bus, which was traveling from Tokyo to the ski areas of central Japan.
The country has suffered a series of high-profile bus accidents caused by drivers falling asleep at the wheel.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference in Tokyo that as well as the 14 people who died, 27 others were hurt. He said no other vehicles were involved.
Police said that the dead included both the 65-year-old driver and alternate driver, who was aged 57.
The mass-selling Yomiuri Shimbun said the older man was at the wheel at the time of the accident.
The accident drew banner newspaper headlines and dominated TV news bulletins in a country where road safety standards are high.
The Yomiuri said it was the first bus accident since 1990 in which more than 10 people were killed.
Media said the passengers ranged in age from 18 to 32, and most were university students.
The Tokyo travel agency that arranged the tour said that the bus was not on its originally scheduled route.
The transport ministry launched an investigation, sending inspectors to the site, while police separately plan to raid the bus operator and the travel agency that organized the tour.
Rules governing working conditions for late and long-distance highway bus drivers were tightened after an April 2012 accident that left seven people dead.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
