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2010-03-30 13:20:49 - Vehicle Accident - Japan EDIS CODE: VI-20100330-25522-JPN
Date & Time: 2010-03-30 13:20:49 [UTC]
Area: Japan, Profecture of Osaka, , Takatsuki Damage level: Moderate (Level 2)
Not confirmed information! Description: A swimming school bus burst into flames after crashing into a roadside wall here Monday evening, killing the driver and injuring 10 passengers, police said. The accident occurred at around 6 p.m. on Monday on a city street in a residential district in the Osaka Prefecture city of Takatsuki, located 1.5 kilometers northwest of JR Takatsuki Station. The fire was extinguished about 15 minutes later, but Akinaga Oyama, 65, a driver for Takatsuki Swimming School, was found dead in the vehicle. Although the bus was carrying more than 10 passengers besides Oyama, mostly elementary school students, all of them escaped from the vehicle before it went up in flames. Among the passengers, nine elementary school students (six boys and three girls) aged 5 to 10 and a woman who is the guardian of one of the pupils reportedly suffered minor injuries. The bus zigzagged for around half a minute while running from west to east on the city road and stopped after colliding with the wall along the Meishin Expressway on the right-hand side, according to police. The driver's side of the bus was badly damaged due to the crash. Shortly after, local residents rescued the passengers from the front door and windows before the bus burst into flames. "The driver suddenly closed his eyes and started seriously struggling. He was groaning painfully with his hands not on the steering wheel but on his neck," a 9-year-old boy, who was sitting in the front seat on the bus, said at a hospital where he was taken after the accident. "I was extremely scared," he recalled. The driver of a car running behind the bus also witnessed Oyama's zigzag driving. Investigators are currently probing the cause of the accident, including Oyama's possible poor physical condition. A 31-year-old housewife living near the accident scene saw smoke coming out of the bus and children crying inside. "Adults got the children out of bus windows one after another and I helped evacuate children with my neighbors. In less than five minutes, the bus went up in flames from behind with a loud bang," she said. According to officials from the swimming school, the bus left the school at around 5:45 p.m. on the third run of the day. Oyama usually worked five days a week.
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