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A lightweight van collided with a car on the Yonago Expressway on Sunday evening, killing three university students and severely injuring four.
Police said the two vehicles were traveling in opposite directions, with three out of five university students traveling in the car killed in the impact of the accident, while the two couples riding in the van suffered severe injuries.
The accident occurred on a straight stretch of road in an area where there was only one lane in each direction, temporarily stopping traffic between the Mizokuchi Interchange and Koufu Interchange.
Police are currently working to identify the identity of the victims and determine the cause of the accident.
© News reports
12 Comments
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Disillusioned
Hence, a head on collision. Oh, der!?! So, where is the money going on the cause? Texting while driving? reading a newspaper? sleeping? speeding?
chotto
What is wrong with putting up temporary traffic lights. We DO NOT NEED those idiots waving red wands. Aside form anything, they go home at the end of the night.
timorborder
Saw this one on the news this morning (before NHK went into Vancouver overdrive). It was a real shocker with one of the vehicles destroyed to the point of non-recognition. Don't know who was to blame (yet), but one or both of these vehicles must have been traveling rather fast.
What a tragedy. Off for the weekend with some university friends, and down the morgue on a Sunday evening. What a complete and absolute waste.
bamboohat
Terrible. Wish a full recovery to the injured. RIP to the dead.
KyokoSmile
How horrible, I can't comprehend how something like this could happen? I'm still shocked by it. Hope full recovery to the injured and R.I.P. to those who perished. :(
cdanr
I travel the Yonago Expressway quite often on the way to and from Mt Daisen for skiing and it can be treacherous at times with snow and ice. Mandatory tire chains are often enforced. I agree that it appears one or both of these cars was traveling at a far higher speed than is advised.
ExRand
How about just putting in speed bumps then adding traffic lights to the already over-wired streets and highways.
goddog
There are lots of one lane roads out near me, but this rarely happens. Perhaps a game of chicken, or drinking.
jason6
If they were going to the mountain to ski/board, chances are that the driver was tired and sleepy after a full day of strenuous sport. Falling asleep at the wheel is just a big a hazard as drinking or cellphone usage.
ratpack
my heart goes out to the parents
timeon
jason, I agree with you, we decided to quit going skiing by car and use train nowadays. it gets really dangerous when your exhausted after waking up at 5-6 am, then skiing all day long
Fadamor
By definition, any road labeled an "expressway" is probably designed for higher speeds. Speedbumps would defeat the purpose of the "expressway" don't you think?
The fact that there is a two-lane "expressway" seems surprising... more so in that they apparently didn't have some sort of barrier between the lanes. I guess they left the centerline open to allow passing as needed.
Simple physics tells you that two vehicles moving towards each other at 40kph (each) will impact with the force of an 80kph collision. We aren't going to be able to judge whether someone was exceeding the safe speed limit just by viewing a few photos.