On the afternoon of the 28th, a truck crashed into a line of elementary school students on their way home from school on the streets of Yachimata City, Chiba Prefecture, and police and fire departments said that two people were killed and three were seriously injured.
Police have arrested a 60-year-old self-proclaimed truck driver on the spot on suspicion of negligent driving injuries and are investigating the circumstances of the accident in detail.
Around 3:30 pm on the 28th, a truck rushed into a line of elementary school students on their way home from school on the streets of Yachimata, Yachimata.
According to police and fire departments, two children were killed and three children aged 6 to 10 were seriously injured.
According to police, the city road at the site is about 7 meters wide and there are no sidewalks or center lines, and it seems that the truck slammed into a line of elementary school students from the front after hitting a utility pole on the side of the road.
Police arrested Yachimata City's self-proclaimed truck driver, Hiroshi Umezawa (60), on the spot on suspicion of negligent driving injuries.
The police are investigating the situation of the accident in detail by admitting the suspicion to the investigation and stating that "when I suddenly turned the steering wheel to the left, I hit a telephone pole and rushed into the line of children as it was". ..
A company near the site "Our truck has an accident"
An office staff member of a rebar processing company near the site told NHK that the vehicle that caused the accident was the truck of this company.
The truck was on its way back to the company after unloading materials at the new construction site of a building in Nagareyama City, Chiba Prefecture at 1:00 pm on the 28th.
It was a male driver who was driving, and the president of the company and the factory manager were working on site.
The office staff said, "Since the site is a school road for children and there are no guardrails, it was well known to be careful when driving. It would be a shame if our driver had an accident. I'm really sorry for the families of the children who suffered the damage. I think that the company will take action as soon as the person in charge returns. "
The state of the site
According to the image from the sky by NHK helicopter, you can see that a green truck is stuck in the field on the side of the road that seems to be the site.
The truck is shaped like a loading platform and a crane, plunging diagonally into the field and leaving the hazard lights on.
The accident seems to have occurred on a straight road, and police and fire department staff can be seen gathering around the road and trucks.
The site is a suburban area where fields and houses coexist.
A woman living near the accident site
A woman living near the accident site told NHK's telephone interview that "The site is a road in the field and there are no sidewalks, so two cars just pass each other. I am worried that they are children in a nearby housing complex. I was talking.