3 Japanese killed as tour bus crashes in Utah+

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 10 Kyodo -
Three Japanese tourists were killed and six other Japanese sustained serious
injuries when their tour bus carrying 15 people rolled off a highway in Utah on
Monday evening, local police said Tuesday.
The six injured, some of whom are in critical condition, were taken to
hospitals in Salt Lake City, according to the police authorities. Six others
also suffered minor injuries and were sent to hospitals in Cedar City.
While the local police and Japanese Consulate General in Denver, Colorado, are
trying to identify the passengers, Nippon Travel Agency Co. said Tuesday one of
the three fatalities is a man in his 20s from Osaka who was traveling as a
member of its group tour.
The bus was en route to Bryce Canyon National Park, a popular tourist destination.
A local newspaper in the U.S. state reported that the bus crashed into the
central divider of the highway around 6:40 p.m. Monday before rolling off the
road. Pictures from local media show the bus was completely turned over and
destroyed.
The three fatalities appear to have been tossed from the bus due to the impact
of the crash.
The local police are now questioning the driver, believed also to be Japanese.
In Tokyo on Tuesday, major travel agency H.I.S. Co. said 14 Japanese tourists
were on the bus.
Among the 14, four were clients of H.I.S., while eight were traveling in the
group from Nippon Travel Agency, and the remaining two were KNT Co. clients,
according to the agencies.
H.I.S. said its four clients were injured but none critically, while KNT said
one of its clients, a man, was severely injured and the other, a woman, only
slightly.
Nippon Travel Agency said it has confirmed that one of its clients had died and
five had been hospitalized, and is trying to gather information about the other
two. The travel agency said it set up a unit to deal with the accident and will
send an executive officer to the accident site.
The eight were aged between 14 and 52, and two are from Tokyo, two from Aichi
Prefecture, and four from Osaka, according to the agency.
==Kyodo
2010-08-10 20:36:39


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next