Forty-seven people, mostly foreign nationals, were injured Saturday after one tour bus rear-ended another while the two vehicles were traveling together on an expressway in western Tokyo, police said.
None of the victims have life-threatening injuries following the collision, which a bus driver reported at around 10:15 a.m. to have occurred near the mouth of the Kobotoke Tunnel on the Chuo Expressway in Hachioji.
The buses had earlier departed from JR Tokyo Station and were on their way to Lake Kawaguchi in neighboring Yamanashi Prefecture.
It is believed the buses, operated by the same company, kept starting and stopping due to traffic, and the accident occurred when the driver of the rear bus failed to notice that the one in front had braked, according to police.
The accident led to temporary closure of the outbound lanes between Hachioji junction and Sagamiko interchange, operator Central Nippon Expressway Co said.
© KYODO
33 Comments
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ycgdude
None of the victims HAS, not have.
wallace
I hope they have their private health insurance.
Fighto!
Wishing them all a swift recovery.
They won't be excluded from receiving any vital treatment. Japan is fortunately not America. They'll be treated regardless.
Meiyouwenti
No mention of the victims’ nationalities. Is it so irrelevant?
wallace
The injured will receive treatment and the tab for the bill.
deanzaZZR
Are you sure about that?
wallace
Every person in America can receive free treatment in an ER but must pay or have insurance for further care.
Fighto!
The passengers are at no fault. It is highly likely the bus company will have to cover the hospitalisation costs through their insurance. (Plus any extra compensation that may be ruled necessary).
Newgirlintown
Why do people keep assuming they were American?
wallace
The injured will pay first and claim back their emergency care costs from the bus owner.
Japantime
Hopefully they introduce measures to decrease the risk of all the extra foreign tourist buses on the roads. With the number of foreign tourists increasing every month, we should expect to see more of these types of accidents.
deanzaZZR
That's a nice thought. So the bus company is paying hospital expenses up front? Are you sure about that? I, however, always purchase travel insurance for such a possibility.
owzer
No.
You don’t pay anything when injured in a car accident. You tell the hospital about the accident and the ask for the insurance info and then you get treated for free. You even get paid by the insurance company for every time you visit the hospital.
deanzaZZR
The bus couldn't stop fast enough, excess weight.
Vincent Ricci
Sad but not surprising. These buses drive insanely fast on the highways and always on the right lane.
CaptDingleheimer
That’s why I always purchase top-notch travel insurance, especially with $1 million ambulatory coverage. The last thing you want us to be stranded at some foreign hospital if you’re banged up so bad that airlines refused to fly you. Those flying ICU units that would evacuate you back to your home country cost as much as a house, just to make a one-way trip across the Pacific.
garypen
Even full price for minor medical care in Japan is so reasonable, it wouldn't make much difference. The full price here is often what my 10% co-pay would have been back in the US.
OTOH, if they're not from the US with its criminally high medical costs, it may seem expensive here without insurance.
garypen
It depends on municipality. But, $1,500-$2,000 is quite common.
An air ambulance is $25,000 and up.
US medical costs are truly a crime against humanity.
garypen
They should mandate for buses the same types of safety systems found in modern cars - auto-braking, lane-keeping, distance-keeping, etc.
They even can detect if the driver is nodding off, which would be especially useful for buses and trucks.
maxjapank
Glad there were no major injuries. And a bit "lol" at how every poster has been downvoted here. Maybe I will be, too.
GuruMick
The law in Australia will nearly always find the vehicle behind ,ie trailing , to be at fault.
No excuses like excess wight are considered.
The bus behind must keep a safe distance from that bus in front,,,end of story.
Japanese freeway have lines on the side panels to indicate how much distance you must keep when travelling at speed.
My assessment, following bus did not keep the requisite distance for whatever reason,
@Japan Glimpsed
"Mostly foreigners" ? Not according to Japanese reporting. These were charter buses carrying foreign tourists bound for Kawaguchiko, of Fuji Lawson fame.
owzer
6 downvotes. lol
Looks like some people didn't know about this and ended up paying for their own treatment. Whoops!
In Japan, you don't pay for your medical treatment in a car accident.
Yubaru
Hardly. Seeing as how they were passengers the bus company will cover all hospitalization costs and treatment.
They will also end up paying compensation to not only the injured, but those who were travelling on the bus for the inconvenience.
The bus company has insurance for cases like this,
Yubaru
The law here is basically the same, with some exceptions, like in the case of "brake-checking" or something similar.
I've "been there" and from personal experience, had to pay, well my insurance did, 100% of damages, because I hit the car from behind.
Not directed to you here, but to the "audience" in general. Do not let anyone tell you that there is no such thing as 100% fault in auto accidents in Japan. There is, and it happens in cases like this
Yubaru
There is no excuse, and if the drivers tries to use it, it most assuredly will not be accepted by the police, in fact it will make things worse. There is no way of knowing if there was "excess weight", but if there was, due to excess luggage or excess passengers, that would be illegal.
Even a full bus, is not considered to be having "excess weight", and even then it is no excuse because the driver was following too close for safety purposes. It's totally on him.
NipponIchiGo
Why is a car accident news at the national level? who cares.
Yubaru
Keep in mind there is a "national level" on JT, and then there is the "national level" for the rest of Japan. The former is only a tiny part of the whole.
WA4TKG
I wonder; the time I had to get ambulance(d) to the hospital from being HIT BY A CAR, and they tried to collect from ME at the hospital. I asked them if they wanted the bandages back that ran from my knee to my ankle
Hello Kitty 321
@Japan GlimpsedToday 11:00 am JST
The headline is referring to the injured, maybe the driver and the bus guide were not foreigners,
enmaai
@ WA4TKG
I wonder; the time I had to get ambulance(d) to the hospital from being HIT BY A CAR, and they tried to collect from ME at the hospital. I asked them if they wanted the bandages back that ran from my knee to my ankle
Japan rescue staff don't do that, it may take minutes or so for these guys to find a hospital that accept the patient but once your inside the ER they'll hand to medical team and what they learned through talking to you and and learning about your medical history .
and then the Docs and nurses is they can say that the patient is alive after that its all paper work.
Yubaru
Rather large differences here, one you arent a tourist, two you have Japanese health insurance, three it was not a "mass" casualty event, four and most importantly, as you even noted, they "tried".
CaptDingleheimer
It almost doesn't matter what you write. There is no other comments section on any other website that is quite like this one. JT has a bunch of people who probably have never even written a comment, but they just go story to story to downvote everything. It quite peculiar. I suspect some Japanese folks who get bent out of shape that foreigners are opining about their country.