One man died and 45 people were injured Saturday when a car jumped the dividing strip and rammed into a tour bus on an expressway in central Japan, police said.
Footage taken from the bus dash-cam recorder showed the car, which had been traveling in the opposite direction, spinning in the air as it flew across the medium strip before crashing into the front of the bus, according to the president of the tour bus operator, Toshin Kanko Bus Co.
(Toshin Kanko Bus Co.)
The driver of the car, Masamitsu Ikuma, 62, a doctor from Hamamatsu City, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident which took place around 7:30 a.m. on the Tomei Expressway in Shinshiro, Aichi Prefecture, the police said.
Among the 47 people on the bus, six suffered broken bones while others sustained minor injuries, the police said.
The tour bus, on a cherry-picking and shopping day trip to the Minami-Alps in Yamanashi Prefecture, departed Toyokawa in Aichi in the morning, according to Travel Tokai, which planned the tour.
A female bus passenger in her 60s said the scene was chaotic with people screaming for help. She said the bus driver suffered a head injury and was unable to move. The woman, who had been sitting in the middle of the bus, escaped with minor injuries.
"I was going to enjoy the trip. It was really scary," the woman said from a hospital where she had been taken.
At a nearby restaurant, 20 to 30 injured passengers waited for medical assistance. While many were able to walk unassisted, some were bleeding from head wounds after being showered with broken glass in the crash, according to a restaurant employee.
(Toshin Kanko Bus Co.)
In the restaurant, broken pieces of glass were scattered across the floor and injured people were applying ice to their faces and arms, the employee said.
Ikuma's car was heading in a westward direction before the accident, according to the police and firefighters.
The accident closed the expressway between Toyokawa Interchange in Aichi and Mikkabi Junction in Shizuoka Prefecture for about five hours.
