Mother, 1-year-old daughter killed in tunnel crash along Shin-Meishin Expressway

Absolutely tragic for this unfortunate husband & father. May these two souls “Rest In Peace” until perhaps, one day, they may be rejoined again in whatever grand design there is to this universe.

“Condolences” offered their extended family and to the Kobe community suffering from this terrible loss.

All passengers, in ANY seat in a vehicle, should be wearing seatbelts. Children especially, should be belted in an approved carrier or booster, belted to the car seat.

Seatbelts save lives...

RIP.

zichiToday  04:28 pm JST

Seat belts?

"Police said the mother and child were thrown out of the vehicle." should answer your question.

Shin-Meishin is a relatively new expwy with a well-paved road surface and reasonably wide lanes (for a Japanese hwy.) It's odd that one would lose control performing a relatively simple maneuver such as a lane-change. Perhaps the driver was distracted? At 21yo, his probable lack of experience may have also played a role.

So sad about the wife and child. A tragic example of why it's so important to wear seat belts and buckle children into child restraint seats that are securely tethered to the vehicle.

As Eastman says, you do NOT change lanes in a tunnel. This is very clearly explained in the course for a Japanese driving license. And you DO use seat belts!

Very sad. Condolence.

This is not correct, many tunnels on highways allow you to change lanes.

I've seen so many news about traffic accidents(with deaths) in tunnels, in Japan...

Very scary!

Seat belts are mandatory in the back seat on expressways (which this was) only here.

It's a ridiculous rule that people are of course going to ignore. Such avoidable tragedy.

Some my find this useful

https://www.mcipac.marines.mil/Portals/28/Documents/Safety/Driver's%20Study%20Guide%202020(Updated%20on%20Aug17).pdf?ver=2020-08-25-021235-977

you do NOT change lanes in a tunnel. This is very clearly explained in the course for a Japanese driving license

Unless it is a multi-lane roadway which is also clearly explained in the course for a Japanese driving license.

If they were ejected from the vehicle, they weren't strapped in.

It really used to burn my rear end when we'd visit my Japanese sister-in-law's family and they'd have the 3 little kids jumping around freely in the back of the family van, sometimes even sitting in someone's lap in the front seat, perched up on the dashboard.

For a country where people wear helmets to shovel snow, I'm surprised that the 'safety' mentality doesn't follow into children as passengers in vehicles.

From my understanding of what could have happened depending on time of day. Perhaps the husband was entering or existing a dark tunnel. What could have happen doing this time the eyes have to adjust to the light, may it be coming from the darkness in to light or going into the darkness from light and at this time perhaps he was changing lanes and the husband hit the wall. I have read about many accidents happening this way. Blinded by light or darkness!

Police said the driver told them he was attempting to change from the overtaking lane to the left lane, and crashed into the tunnel’s left wall.

“Swevers” I call them. I’ve never seen so many drivers that can’t drive in a straight line, constantly swerving back and forth in between the white lines and sometimes crossing them.

@timeon: your comment, "many tunnels on highways allow you to change lanes" is irrelevant. Sorry, but this driver with 52 years experience and two accidents that were totally 100% the other drivers' fault, one of them a oil tanker that went out of control on a highway and destroyed my new Lotus and almost took my head off, has this to say:

It doesn't matter what's 'allowed', when you come to driving through a tunnel, regardless of lighting. You maintain speed at a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you, and wait until you're out of the tunnel before attempting to change lanes. Here in British Columbia we have plenty of tunnels on divided and undivided tunnels. Only a foolish driver would do what that young man did. And paid for dearly. It takes more than a drivers' license to be competent behind the wheel.

On top of that, if you think I'm being uncaring, I'm deaf. And deaf drivers, whether you know it or not, are the safest cohort of drivers on the roads. Check any drivers' school before arguing that point. I'm also a former Formula V driver, very familiar with high speeds and crashes. Don't talk of things you know nothing about.

Vehicles of all sorts are weapons, in the wrong hands. And that's a freaking tough lesson to learn, especially when your carelessness kills people you care about. That accident was indeed tragic, but completely avoidable, regardless of the tin can the kid was driving.

I meant divided and undivided 'highways', not tunnels. Got carried away with safety and touch-typing. Sorry.

Difficult to imagine why weren't they wearing seatbelts, except lack of education. Uninjured father absolutely means they had very good chances to escape from this accident if they would be wearing the belts.

BertieWooster-As Eastman says, you do NOT change lanes in a tunnel. 

Incorrect. Only when there is a solid yellow line or some other indicator, is it prohibited.

(Don't get me started on the illogical colors and patterns the lane markers here, as well as the ridiculously verbose and complex expwy signage.)

timeon - many tunnels on highways allow you to change lanes.

Correct. If it is a standard white line dividing the lanes, with no other indicator or signage against it, changing lanes is allowed.

TrevorPeace - It doesn't matter what's 'allowed', when you come to driving through a tunnel, regardless of lighting. You maintain speed at a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you, and wait until you're out of the tunnel before attempting to change lanes. 

There is nothing intrinsically more dangerous about changing lanes in an expwy tunnel than on the expwy itself. Look, signal, look again, change lanes. The tunnel wall is no more of a danger than the sound wall or barriers on the expwy, which are also quite close here in Japan.

I imagine the highways in Canada are more like US highways, with their wide shoulders. But, in Japan, the open roadways on the expwys are typically just as tight as in the tunnels, with concrete barriers and sound walls on either side of the shoulderless road.