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Truck driver questioned over tire that caused fatal accident on Chugoku Expressway

4 Comments

Okayama Prefectural Police are questioning a male truck driver over a fatal accident that may have been caused by a spare tire from his vehicle on the Chugoku Expressway on Oct 18.

A 49-year-old woman and her 21-year-old daughter were killed after they were hit by a semi-trailer in a freak accident that occurred at around 8:15 p.m. last Wednesday in Tsuyama. The two women, Mika Nakamura, and her her daughter Ami, were driving along the expressway when they ran over a large truck tire lying in the center of the passing lane, Fuji TV reported. The impact damaged the front of their car and they stopped.

The two women walked over to the shoulder of the expressway, which is a three-meter-wide emergency parking area inside the guardrail. Ami then called police to report the accident. While she was on the phone, the semi-trailer also ran over the tire, flipped and skidded on its side, hitting the two women, and sending them over the guardrail.

The woman were taken to hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival. The truck driver sustained light injuries.

Police said the truck driver told them he saw the car stopped on the expressway but did not see the tire. The section of the expressway where the accident occurred is poorly lit.

Following an investigation, police believe that a truck operated by a shipping company whose headquarters is in Hiroshima Prefecture may be responsible for the spare tire abandoned on the expressway. The tire was one meter is diameter and a chain used to keep spare tires in place underneath trucks was also found on the expressway.

A spokesman for the company the driver works for said he had driven along that expressway earlier that night but that he was unaware the spare tire had fallen off the truck.

Police said they will look into the truck's maintenance records to see if there was any negligence.

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4 Comments
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If there is any blame here for negligence, hit the company, not their poor truck driver, surely.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

And the company will hit the poor driver. The poor guy cannot escape the wrath.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

There are no winners here. The first truck driver may or may not to be responsible depending on his maintenance records and how the police view them. I can't see the truck driver who actually had the two women getting off without some kind of punishment. The police will claim, however absurdedly, that the driver should have seen the tire and avoided it, thus he's responsible. And realistically, the woman who had the tire in the first place is not completely blameless. The news on TV last night reported that she and her daughter were waiting on the outside of the guard rail. Turns out they weren't.

Actually, this whole thing reads like an episode of Final Destination. Those two tried their best to avoid problems, but problems found them

0 ( +1 / -1 )

scary stuff,I would hate to have an accident on expressway.. the semis go at crazy speeds so often.. they really should limit them and / or dedicate a semi only lane., I still remember driving somewhere with a friend and we saw that huge double semi swinging between lanes ( driver drunk or asleep) , we decided not to pass him but instead took an hour rest at one of the service stations...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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