Driver arrested after bus carrying high school baseball players tips over, killing 1

Sunday 12th July, 04:33 AM JST

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bushlover at 02:46 PM JST - 12th July

That's it Smith. Stick it to em all. Point fingers and blame. That is the game you are good at. Can't wait for investigations just gotta point and blame. It's obviously the drivers fault here. No one elses.
smithinjapan at 03:27 PM JST - 12th July

bushlover: "That's it Smith. Stick it to em all. Point fingers and blame. That is the game you are good at. Can't wait for investigations just gotta point and blame. It's obviously the drivers fault here. No one elses."

Just because you took a shelacking on the 'bush surveillance' thread doesn't mean you should really come onto this one and go haywire. Slow down and actually READ the comment I posted: "So who chose the bus/company? Whomever did deserves at least a small fraction of the blame."

Now, can you please tell me in what world 'a small fraction' equals 100%? and where did I say the driver was exempt? But hey, you wouldn't be bushlover if you didn't post things like the above, and then follow with hypocritical comments like:

"Can't wait for investigations just gotta point and blame...."

and...

"It's obviously the drivers fault here. No one elses."

... in the same breath.

I have absolutely no doubt the driver bears the brunt of the blame, and you can go ahead and point out where I said otherwise. However, as you pointed out before you went and contradicted yourself, there has yet to be a thorough investigation of the events that led to and the accident itself. One poster above said he has no doubt the kids were being rowdy -- I didn't see you jump on him and whining about 'pointing fingers', which again shows you are just holding a grudge from other threads.

Please leave the baggage at the door and post on the thread and comments at hand. As it is, except in direct reference to why you might be reacting as you have on this thread, I have commented solely on the article in question.
tuneintokyo at 03:55 PM JST - 12th July

Regardless of who's to blame... a kid lost his life. That's sad and his family and friends must be hurting right now.
smithinjapan at 04:41 PM JST - 12th July

tuneintokyo: Agreed. Not only is it sad, it's tragic, and being tragic people have the right and responsibility to find out why this boy's life ended WELL before its time. My condolences go out to the family, and I hope they get to the bottom of this and can prevent any similar incidents in the future.
JeffLee at 05:02 PM JST - 12th July

Bobbafett's comment is on the money. Similar with the Osaka train derailment. Prosecutors were looking to pinpoint blame, so they arrested the head of the railway company to appease the grief of the victims.

As it was raining at the time of the bus accident and there's no mention of an estimated speed the bus was going vis-a-vis the speed limit, it seems the arrest has more to do with symbolism than the law.
kirakira25 at 06:00 PM JST - 12th July

This reminds me of a recent major issue I had with my daughters kindergarten. I refused to let her go on a school trip because the bus they were going to be travelling in didn't have seatbelts and I was treated like a social leper as a result.

Back here in the UK for 2 months she goes swimming wither her primary school every Monday morning - on a coach - and she told me the teachers come through the bus and check everyone is wearing seatbelts before the bus leaves. Anyone caught not using one is banned form swimming for the rest of the term.

I thought the law in Japan now was to use seatbelts? Yet again, another law not being enforced.

The bus involved in the accident carried backup players, according to the school. The regular players in the other bus attended the ceremony, which began at 10 a.m. as scheduled.

This bit I find unbelievable!!! A kid lost his life for Gods sake. The others were fliupped upseide down. But by God, thank god the back up players still made it to the game and "hopefully played to their fullest"!

Jeez!
smithinjapan at 08:37 PM JST - 12th July

kirakira: "This bit I find unbelievable!!! A kid lost his life for Gods sake. The others were fliupped upseide down. But by God, thank god the back up players still made it to the game and "hopefully played to their fullest" Jeez!"

It IS pretty unbelievable, isn't it? Still, to be a little nit-picky, it was the back-ups who were in the bus accident, and the regulars who made it to the event unharmed. The other way around and they might have actually not attended out of respect for the REAL players.
bushlover at 09:49 PM JST - 12th July

Funny how one comment can result in a paragraph of damage control. And my comment is not contradictory. The driver of a vehicle is ultimately responsible for it's safe operation kids acting up or not. Some people should take counseling if they feel the need to shellac others on threads and leave their baggage at the door when doing so since the are self professed (constantly) shellacers.
smithinjapan at 10:18 PM JST - 12th July

bushlover: "The driver of a vehicle is ultimately responsible for it's safe operation kids acting up or not."

Who hires the driver? Who hires the company? But hey... let's take a look at your comment again:

"Point fingers and blame....Can't wait for investigations just gotta point and blame. It's obviously the drivers fault here. No one elses."

I think you were talking about hypocrisy the other day?

So, um, yes, your comment is indeed contradictory. Or, is 'go ahead and point fingers (before an investigation)' not contradictory to 'It's obviously the driver's fault here. No one else's [elses]'?

I've more than left this open to you to actually comment on the thread and not the comments themselves, but you insist on bringing your baggage -- as I said and you poorly copied and pasted -- and so I will comment on your post.

"Some people should take counseling..."

Again with the hypocrisy :)

Look... this is about a little boy who lost his life because of a shoddy bus, bad driver, and about bad management. You want to blame the driver 100% before you know the facts, go ahead. But don't act all self-righteous and declare that others are rushing to judge something before it's been investigated and then, in the same breath, declare the driver to be 100% to blame if you don't like being called a hypocrite. And don't bring in your grudges for comments on other threads simply for argument's sake if you don't want to look like an a$$.
helloklitty at 11:44 PM JST - 12th July

Fuwa may not have been speeding. He may have hit water and aquaplaned into a wall. The cops would prefer to bully him into admitting speed was a factor. Fuwa, absolutely distraught, could have been forced into admitting the allegations. You cannot believe what comes out of a prosecutors mouth in Japan.

Exactly. I can't believe he said "I was so driving so fast." Anyway, that doesn't say that he was driving over the speed limit.

I used to drive a van full of junior high kids and they'd get so noisy that I had several close calls.
TheTim at 05:07 AM JST - 13th July

This arrest is idiotic. How on earth are they going to prove that speed was a factor in the accident? Driving a bus is not easy on dry roads let alone rainy and wet ones. Not to mention this man wasn't even a professional bus driver. The Japanese police force puts the "D" in Douchey.
Osakadaz at 09:37 AM JST - 13th July

look..if you knew how many teachers were being forced by their bosses to take on these kind of duties whilst having their pay cut and bonuses cut you might feel a bit sorry for the guy.Schools would rather skimp on paying for a professional driver by forcing their staff to drive and when a tragedy like this happens I can't help feeling sorry for the teacher..even if he was driving faster than he should have been.My school sends us out on 'delivery lessons' to junior high schools in cars driven by staff..we have no choice and if there is an accident I really wonder where we will stand legally.
pawatan at 01:36 PM JST - 13th July

This bit I find unbelievable!!! A kid lost his life for Gods sake. The others were fliupped upseide down. But by God, thank god the back up players still made it to the game and "hopefully played to their fullest" Jeez!

I think that was noble of them. These kids are all about baseball and honoring their dead teammate via playing in his memory seems to be an appropriate way to grieve, and to remember.
usaexpat at 11:42 PM JST - 13th July

I've had a lot of scary bus rides in Japan usually related to the driver speeding and severe cross winds causing the bus to lean and swerve around in the lane. I take the train when I can it's safer.
sfjp330 at 07:11 AM JST - 14th July

You can guess to all the possibilities of preventing these type of accidents, but it already happened. If the seatbelt is available, as indicated, then ensure that everybody use it. Maybe make it law for all the buses to have seatbelts in Japan. My condolence is to the family of the 16 years old who lost their son.