Six years ago, in a bus accident in Karuizawa Town, Nagano Prefecture, where 15 people including university students died, the president of a bus company and a former employee who were accused of accidental fatal injury in business tried to testify the accident. The houses testified about the situation of the last brake operation.
Six years ago, in January 2016, a ski tour bus fell to the side of the road without being able to turn the curve in Karuizawa Town, killing 15 people including university students and injuring 26 people.
In this accident, Misaku Takahashi (60), the president of the Tokyo company "ESP" that was operating the bus, and Tsuyoshi Arai (53), a former employee in charge of operation management, were unfamiliar with driving a large bus. He has been accused of accidental fatal injury in business, for example, because he could have predicted that his hand could cause a fatal accident but did not provide the necessary training.
In a trial held at the Nagano District Court on the 18th, a police officer who investigated the accident appeared as a witness on the prosecution side and said, "As a result of analyzing the data, the driver accidentally accelerated the gear just before the accident, and the handle The operation was delayed and I couldn't turn the curve. The driver's skill was immature. "
Then, the expert who appraised the accident testified, "The driver was stepping on the brakes because of tire marks near the site, but the speed was not slowed down."
In previous trials, the defendant's lawyer pleaded not guilty, saying, "I didn't realize I was technically immature enough to ban driving. It was impossible to anticipate the accident in advance." I am.
Father who lost his son "I have no regrets"
Yoshinori Tahara, who lost the son of a college student, told reporters after the trial, "Why did you put your son on the bus of a driver who is inexperienced again because the cause of the accident was known at the trial? I have no choice but to regret that it will be. "
After that, he said, "I promised my son that I would live forward. I would like to appeal to prevent the same accident from happening again based on the cause of the accident that will be revealed at the trial."