High School Student Killed in Bus Crash in Northeastern Japan

Gosen, Niigata Pref., May 7 (Jiji Press)–A 17-year-old male high school student was killed in a microbus crash that happened on the Ban-Etsu Expressway in the city of Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, on Wednesday. Hiroto Inagaki, from the city of Niigata, the capital of the namesake prefecture bordering Fukushima, was among the passengers of the microbus, which crashed into a guardrail on the expressway’s inbound lane near the Bandaiatami Interchange around 7:40 a.m. According to the Fukushima prefectural police’s expressway unit, the guardrail is at a gentle right curve. Inagaki was thrown into the outbound lane and was confirmed dead at the scene. He died due to blood loss. All others on board were taken to hospital. None of them are in life-threatening condition. The microbus, driven by a 68-year-old man from the city of Tainai in Niigata Prefecture, was carrying 20 members of the soft tennis club at Hokuetsu High School, a private school in the city of Niigata. Following the microbus crash, a truck crashed into the bent guardrail, leaving two people with minor injuries. A total of 20 people suffered injuries in the crashes. The Fukushima police will investigate the incident for possible violations of a related traffic law and question the bus driver after he recovers. According to Kanbara Tetsudo Co., a bus operator in the Niigata Prefecture city of Gosen, adjacent to the city of Niigata, an marketing employee rented the microbus from a car rental company under the name of Kanbara Tetsudo after receiving a request from the high school. The driver is not an employee of Kanbara Tetsudo. The marketing employee asked the man through an acquaintance to drive bus and presented his or her own driver’s license when renting the bus. On Thursday morning, four officials from the Hokuriku-Shinetsu District Transport Bureau of the Japanese transport ministry conducted an on-site inspection of Kanbara Tetsudo, interviewing staff about the circumstances related to the accident. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]