5 killed after station wagon crashes into truck in Niigata
NIIGATA —
Five people were killed when a station wagon crashed into a truck in Ojiyashi, Niigata Prefecture, on Friday.
According to police, the accident occurred at around 11:30 a.m. The station wagon carrying six members of one family hit the back of the truck and burst into flames, TBS reported. Five of the station wagon’s passengers died, while the sixth, a woman in her 30s, was taken to hospital where she remains in a coma, police said.
Police said the accident occurred on a slight curve where the truck had stopped because of a flat tire. The truck was in the passinglane and its hazard lights were on, TBS reported.
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4
spudman
Oh what a tragedy, why wouldn't the truck driver park away from a curve or at least put safety triangles out. Driver negligence.
2
combinibento
Could be negligence, who knows; this is just a snippet with minimal facts. It involved a flat tire, a truck and a curve. Looks to me like a freak accident, one of those rare, random tragedies that happen every now and then without any reason, and there might well be no one at fault at all. Just people being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It happens.
0
waltery
Such a busy time on the roads. Hope she pulls through.
-3
smithinjapan
This morning on my way to work (by bicycle) I saw a truck just parked in the road with hazard lights on (no cones). No idea where the driver was or what he was doing, but I had to go into the oncoming traffic lane to get around the truck.
It's true that there's minimal information, but my guess is the truck takes the share of the blame here. Were his/her hazard lights on at least? Was there a bit of a shoulder to pull over onto? If not, yeah, a curve is NOT the best place to park.
2
Balefire
The TV news indicated that the truck driver had parked in the passing (i.e., extreme right) lane rather than on the shoulder, had left the truck (to fix the tire? to call for road assistance?), and had not put out flares or reflectors. From the video and simulations I've been watching, it seems that the van ran into the back of the truck, then crossed over to the shoulder at the extreme left. It's not clear to me whether the van burst into flame upon hitting the truck or after reaching the shoulder, but it appears to have been a very intense fire.
I don't see why the truck driver didn't park on the shoulder rather than in the passing lane; a punctured tire shouldn't have prevented him from moving off to the shoulder, IMO.
The victims seem to have been a family. RIP
1
oikawa
Yeah like Smith says you see this everywhere in Japan, people just parked in completely random places (oh and thank you so much for putting your hazard lights on which are really going to help me come to a sudden stop when I'm going at 40mph and come round a corner to find you parked there with no where to go but on to the other side of the road!)
Hardly surprising though when there is no road safety and intelligence taught practically here. Just boring lectures slept through. I had one a couple of years ago and got given a written "test", done verbally simultaneously, but literally 10 seconds was spent on each question, not enough for me with my language ability, but it wasn't checked and I walked out of there my my license. I might have got 10/30, I might have said you should speed up when you see a red light, god knows... but it's ok, I endured a 2 hour lecture so I am drive safety.
-2
smithinjapan
Must be a full moon... I rode home tonight and narrowly evaded about five accidents. One was an old man emailing while riding on his scooter, another an obasan on the wrong side of the road on her bicycle, with no light, forcing me again to go into the oncoming lane on a narrow road, and the rest due to people making an ad hoc parking lot (with hazard lights) while waiting for people to come out of train stations (is my guess) -- in one case with people double parked on both sides so no cars could get through until one person pulled forward a little. Police need to start enforcing parking laws -- and road laws in general -- SERIOUSLY. Now, it wouldn't have helped in this case so much given where it was, but cracking down on people randomly parking to do this or that and helping to educate people more on safety laws instead of just sitting through the videos as oikawa says might help make people think twice about where they pull over, regardless of whether they got a flat or just want to run into Lawson's for a pack of smokes.
2
waltery
Yes to the above. I saw the TV report and the driver has made a serious error. There dose seem to be a lack of road seance that adds to the dangers from bikes on the wrong side and diss regard for red lights I'm surprised there isn't more deaths, but when I see the police on bikes doing the same and on footpaths reminds me I'm living in Disneyland.
0
ka_chan
The truck was stopped in the "express" lane not off the side of the road or the "slow" lane. The vehicle seem to have been a minivan not a station wagon. So how is the driver of the truck no arrested for manslaughter and since the minivan burst in flames, sound like a recall coming. So the minivan seem to have been unsafe, the truck driver was an idiot. Sounds about right for Japan.
1
Balefire
It does seem to have been a minivan, not a station wagon. Both are sometimes referred to in Japanese as "light van", but a station wagon here is unlikely to hold six people, and what I could see of the smoldering wreckage on TV looked as if it had been a minivan.
1
Carcharodon
What was the speed of the van driver, I think that may well have been a major factor. As for flat tire, if it were the front tire then the truck driver had no option to go anywhere else. Especially if it was a blow out. sad news.
0
Balefire
It's quite possible to drive with a punctured tire. It doesn't do the tire any good, it's a little hard to handle, and if you do it for too long you'll deform the rims in addition to ripping up the flat tire...but it's entirely possible to drive a distance like across the highway to the proper side of the road and the shoulder beyond it, with relatively little trouble or damage. I've done it several times, a couple of times in a truck, and I've seen it done many more. I've also patched or replaced tires that were punctured and then driven on for short distances, and there was surprisingly little damage because of it.
The van was by definition going too fast if they were unable to stop in time, but that's par for the course here: even the few who maintain sufficient distance between themselves and the vehicle in front can typically only do it for limited time, because someone will invariably slip into the open space. Tailgating is a real curse on the roads here, and I see little or no serious effort to prevent it.
Nevertheless, the truck driver should have stopped in the correct place, and should have had, and used, the mandated reflector, and probably flares as well.
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