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A man and a woman were killed after their car went off a mountain road, rolled down an embankment and then exploded on Sunday morning in Yoshika, Shimane Prefecture.
According to police, the accident occurred at around 8:30 a.m. Fuji TV reported that police received a call from the male driver of the car saying they were trapped inside their vehicle after it rolled down an embankment. Communication was then cut off.
Police went to the scene and found the car had burst into flames after rolling two meters down the embankment. It took firefighters about an hour to extinguish the blaze. The two occupants, who were a married couple from Hiroshima Prefecture, were confirmed dead at the scene.
The spot where the car veered off the road is a curve, police said.
© Japan Today
12 Comments
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sensei258
What a horrible way to go, I hope their families are comforted
gogogo
Cars don't just explode, perhaps it caught alight but this is just bad reporting.
clueless
Difficult to release seat belts if the car was overturned. Tragic accident.
Dan Lewis
@gogogo Come on, we're selling rags here! Give us a break!
FightingViking
@clueless
They sell a special kind of "knife" that cuts seatbelts and is also equipped with a special kind of "hammer" to break the windscreen. I bought one for my son and another for myself.
Robert Dykes
"Cars don't just explode," well... no but this car happened to get into a violent accident and then rolled down a mountain. So I am not sure if the word "just" is really applicable here.
And if you go to Japlonik they actually have a number of articles about exploding cars and why some cars explode and why most don't. But sadly some cars do explode little intensive.
Dennis Bauer
What kind of car was it? Cars shouldn't just burst in flames either RIP
clueless
Cars can and do just burst into flames. A break in the fuel line is enough to do it. Especially if the car rolls. The heat released from the engine is enough to ignite any leak or build up of vapor.
Brian Wheway
what might have happened was like this, he had a blow out (or swerved to miss something) and the car veered off to one side and rolled down the embankment, he then made a phone call, but during this time, the petrol fuel line was ruptured, or had become disconnected from the components in the engine, this was pouring out over a hot engine, then the fuel caught fire, and this can happen, either way its a horrific way to go.
nandakandamanda
Robert Dykes, re "rolled down a mountain". It rolled two meters, (just over six feet).
Monozuki
Um. I can feel the threat of death overhanging the couple being trapped in the burning car. RIP.
nandakandamanda
Incidentally all the news sources I checked said the car 炎上した, (enjo) ie 'burst into or went up in flames'. Perhaps 'exploded' is a translation glitch, and not actually what happened.