Victims remembered 3 years after Karuizawa bus crash

January 15, 2019

Karuizawa, Nagano Pref.--On the third anniversary Tuesday of a fatal ski tour bus crash that happened in Karuizawa, a resort town in the central Japan prefecture of Nagano, many mourners offered flowers at a monument built near the accident site and prayed for the victims.

In the early hours of Jan. 15, 2016, the bus fell from a roadside hill after running down a mountain road at a speed greatly exceeding the legal limit, killing 15 people aboard and injuring 26 others.

Of the victims, 13 were university students. The other two were crew members--the driver of the bus and a standby.

On Monday, the final day of the three-day weekend, four male friends of Kan Tahara, a victim, who was a 19-year-old sophomore of Tokyo Metropolitan University, offered flowers. The four have graduated from the university.

"It feels like my heart is squeezed," one of them, 23, said. "It's painful, but I realized again that it's important not to let go of the memory of the accident," he said.

Another, 24, said: "I wanted to live our lives together. I wanted to spend our time together talking about hardships of working in society."

A different friend, 23, who suffered serious injuries in the accident and was hospitalized, said: "I was supported by many people. I want to be a person who can understand others' pain."

He added, "I want society to be a place where not only buses but also other vehicles that carry peoples' lives don't cause any accidents so that people can spend their lives safely and peacefully."

Among the passengers on the crashed bus were 10 Hosei University students who attended a seminar offered by Naoki Ogi, a 72-year-old specially appointed professor. Four of them died.

Ogi said: "I talked with bereaved relatives of the four students two days ago. What they wish is to meet them again."

"I prayed for them with a pledge that we'll make utmost efforts so that such an accident will never happen again," he added.

On Tuesday, Misaku Takahashi, 57, president of ESP, which operated the bus, and other officials of the Tokyo-based company visited the crash site and offered prayers at the monument.

"I offer my apology to all people concerned from the bottom of my heart," Takahashi said. Jiji Press