A minibus crashed into a telephone pole in southwestern Japan on Thursday, injuring all 19 passengers, most of them foreign nationals, and the driver, police and firefighters said.
The 13 women and seven men were taken to hospital following the accident at around 6:30 a.m. in Kasuya, Fukuoka Prefecture, and were conscious and did not have life-threatening injuries, they said.
The driver, a man in his 60s, said he had dozed off at the wheel and suddenly swerved the bus to avoid another vehicle, the police said, adding they were investigating whether the accident was a case of negligent driving causing injury, a road traffic law violation.
The minibus was on its way to a food processing plant when it crashed on a straight road around two kilometers northeast of Fukuoka Airport.
