Tour bus crash that killed 14 people exposes lax safety practices

Friday’s bus crash in Nagano Prefecture that killed 14 people and injured 26 others has exposed the pitfalls of small-scale bus tours, the number of which has spiked in recent years due to industry deregulation but whose safety standards are being called into question.

In the country’s worst bus accident in decades, a vehicle carrying 41 people bound for a ski resort plunged off National Route 18 about 2 kilometers south of Karuizawa Station in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, in the early hours of Friday.

All of the 14 casualties aside from the bus;s two drivers ; 65-year-old H．T, who was driving at the time, and 57-year-old K．K ; were college students, local police said.


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Police searched the office of a Tokyo tour agency Jan. 16 in connection with a fatal bus accident the previous day that left 14 people dead.

The company underwent a transport ministry general inspection in February last year regarding its operations in fiscal 2014. It was discovered that the company had failed to have its drivers get regular medical checkups or aptitude tests. On Jan. 13 this year, the ministry issued an administrative disciplinary action against ESP over violations of the Road Transportation Act, and suspended the use of some of the company's vehicles.

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