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One dead, 45 injured in bus-car collision

19 Comments

One man was killed and 45 people injured when a car collided head-on with a tour bus on the Tomei Expressway in Shinshiro, Aichi Prefecture, on Saturday. The dead man was the driver of the car, police said.

According to police, the crash occurred at around 7:30 a.m. when the car veered over the center line into the path of the oncoming bus, Fuji TV reported.

Footage from a camera inside the bus showed the car flip over the center divider and spin through the air into the bus. The car landed on top of the front part of the bus.

The car was crushed, killing the driver, Masamitsu Ikuma, a 62-year-old doctor, who was on his way to work in a rental car. Police said it took nearly four hours to get his body out of the wreckage.

The bus was carrying 47 people, including the driver and a tour guide. All were taken to hospital, with most suffering minor injuries from shattered glass, while others seated at the front of the bus had more serious injuries.

The tour bus was on its way from Toyokawa to Yamanashi Prefecture for cherry picking and to visit a whiskey distillery, a spokesperson for the bus company said.

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19 Comments
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Suicide?

-14 ( +2 / -16 )

Possible suicide or driver falling asleep at the wheel.

-9 ( +2 / -11 )

It was no suicide. On the news, they showed the video from the bus cam, and the car in the opposite lane was traveling at a high rate of speed, and hit the guard rail in the medium. It was launched in the air, and traveled a long distance before hitting the bus like a missile. A very scary video.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

What a horrible accident. The car was propelled and hit the bus literally like a missile. It seems the Dr fell asleep at the wheels.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

or driver falling asleep at the wheel.

"According to police, the crash occurred at around 7:30 a.m. when the car veered over the center line into the path of the oncoming bus, Fuji TV reported."

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Here is the bus cam https://youtu.be/fioSumOtEu0, really scary indeed.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

After watching the video from the bus camera, I'm not certain you can claim it was not a suicide. If someone wanted to commit suicide whilst driving, traveling at a high rate of speed and veering into the center divider.

Whatever the case, it is very sad.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

bus plate.. the Angel number.. rip

0 ( +0 / -0 )

i think the car driver was hurrying to work. An horrific accident.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Puts a question mark over the height of the guardrail.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I have also watched the video. The bus driver couldn't possibly fend off the car jumping to the bus. RIP to the car driver. Hope the injured persons recover soon.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Holy smokes! I wonder what happened at that centre guard rail? Just a note that it's clearly not a head on collision as it flipped into the bus.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

man how did the bus driver survive that, thats one very lucky person right there

0 ( +0 / -0 )

video here youtube.com/watch?v=wO7phxH0x7A

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This happened in the city where I live. It's just a few minutes' drive from my place. I don't see how the driver of the car would expect to jump the guardrail like that. If he was trying to commit suicide, I'm sure he would have done it differently.

This is by no means the way you want your town to make national news... We have the world's top hair stylist, Katagiri-san (whose humble salon around the corner. You may have seen him on TV a few times recently.), the Battle of Nagashino (Japanese Alamo), and ...um... there was a bird flu outbreak in a chicken coop here like 6 years ago. Come on down!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I agree it probably wasn't suicide, unless he just didn't want to do it in his own car.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This news video from NHK described the probable cause of accident more clearly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6CV_UZJMsA

According to the video, there is a gentle upward slope of ground with approx. 70 cm in height between the road and the median guardrail (skip to 3:56 part of the video), so it seems that the car was driving too close to the median at high speed, somehow climbed the slope and jumped to the other side of the road.

The driver who died was a doctor travelling from Hamamatsu to work at some hospital in Aichi prefecture, probably in hurry, and it was a rental car since his own car was being repaired, according to the news, so suicide is highly unlikely. (3.33 part)

What a sad news indeed, RIP to the doctor.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Just watched the video, I amazed that there was only one death.. I guess it hit more of the top of the bus. RIP to the accident victim.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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