10 Years On, Rescuer Recalls Karuizawa Ski Tour Bus Tragedy

Komoro, Nagano Pref., Jan. 15 (Jiji Press)–A rescue worker recalled the 2016 crash of a ski tour bus in Karuizawa in the central Japan prefecture of Nagano that killed 15 people and injured 26 others, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the tragedy on Thursday. “It was an accident I had never experienced,” Akinori Takahashi, 56, chief of the fire department of the city of Komoro in Nagano, said in a recent interview. He had been a captain at the time. “We were forced to make difficult decisions about rescue priorities,” he recalled. On Jan. 15, 2016, the ski tour bus plunged off a cliff, killing 13 university students and two bus drivers. “A bus rollover accident had occurred, leaving many people injured,” the fire department’s urgent call shattered the silence around 2:00 a.m., during Takahashi’s shift break. He immediately rushed to the scene with four rescue squad members but could not see the bus that should have been on the road. Guided by the advance team, he finally saw the bus overturned off the road, the vehicle badly bent. “I sensed that a terrible accident had happened,” he said. “It was the largest accident I had ever seen,” he recalled, speechless as he walked around the bus. “We didn’t know where to start,” Takahashi said. The screams and groans of passengers echoed through the dark, mountainous area. The only thought that came to his mind was, “I have to help them as quickly as possible.” The rescue was difficult. Many passengers were still trapped inside the narrow, damaged bus. Rescuers moved forward carefully, cutting bus seats to reach them. One passenger clung to a seat to avoid falling into an irrigation ditch. The rescuers dug into the ground with their hands, pulling out those trapped beneath the bus. Passengers were quickly losing energy due to the impact of the crash and the freezing temperatures. Takahashi and his team had to perform triage, deciding who to save first. One thing that stayed with him was a passenger quietly staring at the rescue operations while trapped between the ground and the bus. The passenger may have been thinking there were others who needed to help first. “I felt sad,” Takahashi recalled. He felt relief later, learning the passenger survived with no aftereffects. The rescue operations lasted about four hours. “Each of the rescue team members did what they had to do according to their mission,” Takahashi said. He still remembers the cries for help echoing across the quiet mountain and the rescuers’ calls to encourage those trapped until everyone could be brought to safety. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]