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2 killed after their car rear-ends truck on icy road in Nagoya

19 Comments

A man and a woman, both aged 21, were killed after the car they were traveling in rear-ended a truck engaged in de-icing work on a highway in Nagoya on Sunday morning.

According to police, the accident occurred on National Route 23 in the city's Minato Ward at around 1 a.m. Fuji TV reported that the truck had stopped on the highway for de-icing work when it was rear-ended by a light car.

The two passengers in the car, company employee Yohei Handa, who was driving, and Akane Satouchi, a temp worker, suffered severe injuries. They were taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead. The occupants of the truck, two men aged 58 and 60, sustained light injuries, police said.

Police said that at the time of the accident, snow was falling and the road surface was icy. They said the truck had stopped on the side of the road for de-icing work when it was rear-ended. The impact sent the de-icing machine onto the light car.

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19 Comments
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Trucks should NOT stop on the road, especially on highways and expressways. Slow down with hazard-lights on (what they are actually for -- not for stopping to buy cigarettes while illegally parked) until you can find an appropriate spot to pull over. RIP to the young passengers.

-14 ( +2 / -16 )

These are very large bright yellow vehicles with revolving yellow lights up top. Hitting one from behind, even with limited visibility, says more about the inability of a young driver unaccustomed to snowy conditions to handle a vehicle than it does anything else. Tragic, but he should have been paying adequate attention.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

RIP

.

@ Smith

the truck had stopped on the side of the road

6 ( +7 / -1 )

JBird: "the truck had stopped on the side of the road"

"Side" being the operative word, not "shoulder". Obviously if it were stopped in a safe spot it would not have been hit by people traveling down the road, would it? The "side of the road" on the highway near my apartment is (I've measured), narrower than a 1000 yen bill; There is a white line and then a few cm of black before a guard rail, and that's for a several kilometer stretch.

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

Driving too fast for the road conditions. Had he been driving appropriately, it would have been at worst nothing more than a fender-bender.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Smith: Assuming much? First the accident is regrettable but I would first look at how someone driving on icy roads, but good visibility, was able to rear-end a bright yellow truck with flashing lights hard enough to knock the de-icing machine off the truck and onto their car! Certainly not paying attention and obviously traveling too fast for even good conditions! The truck being stopped or going slowly doesn't seem it would have made any difference!

Of course it's always easier to say what shouldn't have been. In fact if the stupid truck and the workers were' nt out there, away from their families, at 1:00 in the morning trying to make the road safer none of this would have happened, no would it?

6 ( +7 / -1 )

@smithinjapan - They had stopped to work on de-icing the road. it's pretty standard for road work crews to work in front of their parked trucks for exactly what happened today. Their parked truck kept them alive. Route 23 has two or three lanes, so there should be no trouble for cars to go around at 1:00AM.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Dan Lewis: "Their parked truck kept them alive."

And killed others.

Jbird: "The truck being stopped or going slowly doesn't seem it would have made any difference!"

Now who's assuming?

"First the accident is regrettable but I would first look at how someone driving on icy roads, but good visibility"

Yeah, shucks darn, right? And why do you yet again assume it was good visibility? Where did you get that? It says that police said at the time of the accident snow was falling and it was icy. I'm quite sure if visibility had been good that would have been reported, since it always is. Instead, "It was snowy". And let me tell you, if it's snowy and windy enough, at 1:00 a.m. to boot, doesn't matter if the trucks bright yellow or even glow in the dark, IF the lights were even on yet (they were still in the truck and hence the light injuries).

But hey... if the visibility was good, why did the truck stop, obstructing the lane, with a car coming behind them? I'm not saying the kids weren't speeding (which you assume) -- mayhap they were -- but obviously they could have found a better place to stop and park.

-12 ( +0 / -12 )

No more bickering please.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Grew up in LA but went to college in Maine - and had to learn how to drive all over again. Hell, I had to learn how to walk all over again (walking in an icy environment with an LA attitude leaves you on your back with a sore head). Poor kids - probably not accustomed to ice. Careful, all.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

yeh smith, I understand your beef with trucks and cars stopping all over the place, but this doesn't seem to be the case. they were doing work on the road, so obviously they had to stop there.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Conditions were snowing and icy and they hit the truck with enough velocity to push machine through the car? It seems like this young fella was going way to fast for the conditions.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Assured clear distance - driving according to the road conditions - basic driving principles. Motor vehicles unfortunately bring out the very worst behavior traits in people. Especially in young individuals. Learn from the experience of others.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

From photos on other news articles, it looks like the deicing machine was one of those towed machines with no (or a non-standard) bumper, and the car went under it.

Probably if there was any kind of bumper on the machine it didn't match the bumper on the car.

The machine has a sign but the sign might be reflective-only or dim or might have been turned off.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

First blame it on the weather. young drivers from Nagoya, would find these road condition rare. If not never driven on icy condition. Fact : 1: Ice on road 2: young driver. It was a maintenance crew keeping the road safe at the appropriate time 1.00am in the morning.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

RIP..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

smithinjapanJan. 15, 2017 - 07:00PM JST

If visiblility is that poor you have no business driving at those speeds. I don't know how the weather was there, but even in a very severe blizzard you could spot a truck with flashing warning lights from several hundred meters away and if you can't, YOU SLOW DOWN.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

smithinjapan The "side of the road" on the highway near my apartment is (I've measured), narrower than a 1000 yen bill

Great, i've now got images of Smith out measuring roads with a 1000 yen note....

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Whatever the circumstances, this was a very tragic ending to the lives of two young people.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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