5 dead after bus collides with truck in Hokkaido

So many people use their phones while driving. I actually saw someone doing their make up in the rear view mirror while driving a while back, and a guy shaving. People seem to think of their vehicles as an extension of their living rooms.

the vehicle was carrying pigs from around Hakodate to a slaughterhouse in Yakumo.

It looks like many didn't make it.

Senseless and preventable. Self driving vehicles can't get here soon enough.

and a guy shaving

shaving is different to using concentration demanding electronic devises. I have hands free. But shaving, I don’t need to concentrate as I have done it for centuries.

Senseless and preventable.

The only way to prevent accidents 100%, is do not drive. That's it.

It is far too soon to know the cause of the accident, and while it appears that, from the picture anyway, that it wasnt a total "head on" collision, both could have been at fault. Yet there will never be a way to be 100% sure either, as both drivers died, and the investigators will have to do their best in coming to a reason and determining fault.

I don’t need to concentrate as I have done it for centuries.

Tendency to overexaggerate a bit here? lol!

Did the truck driver have a heart attack? Tragic.

So many people use their phones while driving. I actually saw someone doing their make up in the rear view mirror while driving a while back, and a guy shaving. People seem to think of their vehicles as an extension of their living rooms.

Women doing makeup and guys shaving, while driving, is a common sight here, particularly in AM rush hour traffic.

Personally I am quite adept at driving with my knees and changing clothes while I drive. Don't use makeup, nor need to shave, and my cell phone is hands free so, it's no biggie for me.

In case you didnt know, any of those things, including the shaving and makeup, while driving are illegal, and fineable offenses if, huge IF here, the police decide to stop you for it. People would probably riot if the cops actually DID their jobs and stopped everyone for these offenses though. Just dont get into an accident when you are on the phone, the consequences will be harsher for it!

Saw the video of the collision. The truck crossed the center line on a bend. The bend was not severe as well. Either the truck was speeding or the driver was distracted. It was 100% the truck. I ride a motorcycle here and a truck coming into my lane from the other lane would be a nightmare.

It is far too soon to know the cause of the accident, and while it appears that, from the picture anyway, that it wasnt a total "head on" collision, both could have been at fault. Yet there will never be a way to be 100% sure either, as both drivers died, and the investigators will have to do their best in coming to a reason and determining fault.

You don't know much about mishap investigation. There are survivors among the bus passengers who will be able to tell investigators if the bus was in it's lane or not. Do not discount the possibility there was a camera on the bus or elsewhere that recorded the crash. From the photo it appears the bus driver may have tried to get as far to the left as possible hoping to avoid a collision.

JDoe

Today 07:13 am JST

Senseless and preventable. Self driving vehicles can't get here soon enough

How many times has your computer froze, crashed, etc... Your smartphone freeze suddenly, start glitching.

Now if we cannot get these things 100% right, zero glitches going to be interesting when a bus truck car gets a glitch and goes off a cliff, into on coming traffic, etc...

Nothing in life is 100% safe but we cannot have everything done by a machine all the time

Two almost identical stories on the same day. This one, and a head on crash between two trucks in Toyama that killed both drivers after one strayed into the wrong lane.

There seems to be a very real problem with dangerous truck drivers.

tragic event.be careful everyone.

The dash cam on the bus should still be able to prove what went wrong, even though damaged.

There seems to be a very real problem with dangerous truck drivers.

I wonder what kind of hours they’re logging here.

But shaving, I don’t need to concentrate as I have done it for centuries.

Man you’re old!!

could this be a case of too many hours driving? may be the truck driver had a micro sleep or just fell asleep at the wheel, either way its a messy accident, my condolacies to the families.

Sad

Ya never know. Don't let a day go wasted.

Shouldn't the headline be "truck collides with bus in Hokkaido"

Better yet "truck ploughs into bus"

Maybe if Japan had at least 4 lane instead of 2 lane street and highway will be safer,in they have the beltway 8,it has 8 lane Google Beltway 8

In another life I was a truck driver (30 yrs ago) and can say carrying livestock is very different from carrying goods. The centre point of gravity is higher for a start and also if the stock are not in pens in the truck and something spooks one of the animals and they all suddenly move can shift the position of the truck. Extreme care is needed especially when cornering. Not saying thats the case here just worth pointing out that perhaps a little overspeed on the trucks part combined with some movement in the back from the animals could very easily put him on the wrong side. Just sadly it had a tragic end.

A lot of cause speculation around a head on collision in broad daylight in open space with two experienced drivers. Hokkaido has a lot of straight nothing roads between cities. Let's wait for the Dashcam. Terrible accident RIP.

I saw the dashcam footage from the car driving behind the bus. Horrific. Can’t get it out of my mind. It’s always amazing how so much devastation is caused in a couple of seconds. There’s nothing the bus could have done :( The truck crossed over the line and went right into them. My sincerest thoughts to all the victims and their families.

The video's already been out for 12 hours at least. The car behind the bus had a dash cam. Clearly shows the truck going straight into the side of the bus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biVYl7hwAm8

I hope the people and the pigs who died in the accident all died instantly and did not suffer.

Looks like the pigs that survived made a quick exit.

My prayers for all of those on bus

Yubaru

It is far too soon to know the cause of the accident, and while it appears that, from the picture anyway, that it wasnt a total "head on" collision,

The video clearly shows the truck crossing over the line, and crashing "head-on" into the bus. It's a horrific thing to watch. The poor bus driver never stood a chance.

OssanAmerica

A lot of cause speculation around a head on collision in broad daylight in open space with two experienced drivers. Hokkaido has a lot of straight nothing roads between cities. Let's wait for the Dashcam. 

The dashcam video has been on TV since yesterday. Truck driver was clearly at fault. 100%. No doubt about it.

They look to be going at about 60 kph or more each, giving a 120 kph+ coming-together. It's Russian roulette out there, but we accept some level of risk everytime we drive.

I guess that kind of worry is what an insurance policy is supposed to compensate for.

An accident like this will nudge crash design forwards, I hope.

Many older Japanese buses are full of sharp-edged baffles, with little or no padding, and seatbelts can be a lucky afterthought.

I’m scared of trucks and buses on highways so I use small local roads. Unfortunately my partner smashed our car after hitting a deer. Life is confusing.

Such a terrible accident...My condolences goes out to all who died .....including the pigs...who are also innocent sentient beings worthy of mention.

May the souls of the departed rest in peace. One reckless truck driver and many broken families.

Do AEBS/Collision Mitigation Braking not avoid head on collisions ?

I don’t drive in Japan, but just from what I’ve seen as a passenger, there are a lot of aggressive truck drivers out there.

Just this past Friday in Kitashinchi in Osaka I unfortunately saw the aftermath of a heavy dump truck that had run over a bicyclist. From the position of the truck, it was clear that one of them had disregarded the signal. According to the news, the poor young guy was DOA at the hospital.

Super tragic to keep seeing this again and again, so I just hope the good people here remain vigilant when going about your daily routine.

RIP to the deceased. There are a lot of narrow roads in Japan and large vehicles drive on them. Drivers have to be very alert. Just a small lapse in concentration can be disastrous.

First is to conduct an autopsy to check for signs of impaired abilities, drugs,(legal or ilegal), and alcohol. Ask relatives about their activities and sleep before their work assignment. Review the onboard cameras or that from cars passing by. Then make conclusions.

Sad news. I wonder if the truck driver fell asleep?

Yes you're correct.

Shouldn't the headline be "truck collides with bus in Hokkaido"

Better yet "truck ploughs into bus"

Hello JT:

Headline could have just been collision between a bus and truck to be neutral, to not indicate who hit who, but by saying bus collides with truck, that indicates in English word order that it was the bus's action upon the truck, thus the bus's fault. Which from the article and photo are clearly not the case.

Of three possible sentences, the wrong English one was chosen, and would need to switch the words bus and truck around to match the story correctly.

Life is so fleeting and can be so cruel.

Crashes are rarely accidents, a poor choice of a word. They are better described as caused by negligence.

Horrible accident.

A lot of the students at the university where I teach take that bus route between Hakodate and Sapporo, when they travel to their hometowns and then back to our campus.

So my heart stopped for a second or two when I heard this news. I worried that one or two of our students, having gone home for the weekend and then returning to school, might be on that bus.

None were, as it turns out.

Prayers for all involved.

Among the passengers who passed away, age and were they tourists, students ?

Age of truck driver is 65. You can have all the experience in the world, time will reduce your reflexes and endurance capacity.

RIP.

@Antiquesaving, Self-driving vehicles do not need to be 100% perfect. They just need to be slightly better than humans.

The number of people killed in road incidents, globally, per year is estimated at 1.35 MILLION.

Replace all those vehicles with a computer that is 1% better than the average driver, and you save 13,500 lives per year. Every year. And then you improve the systems.

If self driving cars were killing 500,000 people per year, we should be celebrating the saving of 850,000 lives.

Demanding that the computers be 100% is just ignorant and human-centric.

Mat

Today 03:00 pm JST

I can't get my GPS in my car to properly function in Tokyo, even less in the mountain areas in Japan.

Now take a guess how well these self driving cars will work in remote areas of the world like Nepal etc .

Pie in the sky thinking.

We can't even secure fresh water for hundreds of millions.

Just this weekend my car navigation system said I was driving through a field because despite being up to date the roads I was on were new as not added to the system yet.

Then the detour I had to take for construction as the officially one way road was turned into a two way to get around the construction.

Yeah try telling the self-driving can to go the wrong way on a one way road.

Unless some major system is created to instantly up load all detours for construction, accidents etc... You will need to have a licensed driver to take over.

3 year ago on the Shuto we were told to turn around drive in the wrong direction to the last entrance and get off because a major accident close the way forward.

So we are far far far from read to have self-driving cars.

I trust bus drivers much more than I do truck drivers. I've seen how they drive on the road.

Furthermore, some of you have probably forgotten the Mitsubishi Fuso accident. The wheel came off and of course, the truck driver lost control of his truck.

SO, this is what Mitsubishi Fuso or whoever made that truck is worried about. When you read a story like this, you have to think about what is being pushed toward you and what is NOT being talked about. The companies that produce these buses and trucks are so happy that you are looking for a bad driver.

The bus driver had two days off BEFORE his work day. No major accidents.

The truck driver was experienced. An older, more mature driver who had no time pressure.

Two good drivers, with no prior history. What we should be asking about is mechanical failure.

it doesn't make sense how the truck managed to hit the bus from side not from the front or back as there seems to be no turn of road.

it doesn't make sense how the truck managed to hit the bus from side not from the front or back as there seems to be no turn of road.

You can see it on video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecZdKLhsjDU

You can see that some of the pigs were alive after being ejected from the truck too. I wonder if they were able to round up all the pigs or if some escaped. I also wonder if they'll process the dead pigs after an accident or if they would be considered contaminated. Such a waste.

Kumagaijin

Today 06:31 pm JST

Any pigs alive will most likely end up in a abattoir once cleared by a vet.

Any injured or killed will end up in one of 3 situations, if not to seriously injured and deemed to be of value, they will be fixed up and eventually end up a food

If dead long they will be incinerated or processed for other non food or cosmetics, like glue, leather etc...

If not dead to long they will end up in feed production for pet food and or cosmetics, clue etc...

You asked, it isn't pretty but that is how our world works.

@AntiqueSaving

Just this weekend my car navigation system said I was driving through a field because despite being up to date the roads I was on were new as not added to the system yet.

So your incar nav is crap. So what, they all are. No-one uses the manufacturers GPS, they are all garbage. Use your iPhone like the rest of the educated population.

When you saw the diversion, did you continue to drive what the GS told you? No, of course not; you used your eyes and brain and took the correct course of action. Just like a self driving car (when we get them, current ones are genuinely not ready yet).

Self driving cars use GPS in the same was you do, as a guideline. Most of the time, the road is read and processed in real time.

And you completely ignored the fact that in order to save human lives, the computer has to be only slightly better than the average human. And the average human is kinda dumb.

Your argument is invalid.

Looking at the video, it is clear the truck didn’t turn on the curve at all. As far as I could make out the truck front wheels were straight. Opens up all sorts of questions to which we have no answers.

Deeply sad accident for all those who won’t be going home to their families today and their families.

Having done a great deal of driving both for my own reasons and in various jobs I know tiredness is a killer, I don’t know how stringent or how well enforced driver hours for truck drivers are in Japan so unsure whether that is a possible contributor?

I hope the people and the pigs who died in the accident all died instantly and did not suffer.

The pigs were on their way to the slaughterhouse, so they didn't have much time left anyway

'5 dead' in the title should be more like 'five people/humans dead'. The crash killed several animals too.

At minor junction with side road with stop sign 250 m north of Nodaoi (野田生) River bridge. The overall width of the roadway over the bridge is less than that of the roadway north of the bridge. The truck driver probably was making sure he was clear of the curbing of the elevated walk on his left on the bridge so was closer to the center line. The bus driver’s lane was narrower on the bridge so perhaps he moved slightly toward the center line. The combination of two such small movements could have caused the accident.

Probable location: 42° 13’ 01.5” N, 140° 22’ 59.5” E

@Antiquesaving, Self-driving vehicles do not need to be 100% perfect. They just need to be slightly better than humans.

I'm an experienced commercial and instrument rated pilot and I have had "George", our name for the autopilot, try to kill me more than once. I was awake and paying attention so I am here to tell the story. I am not sanguine about the ability to run robot trucks on public roads with other traffic safely.

@MatJune 19 03:00 pm JST

Self-driving vehicles do not need to be 100% perfect. They just need to be slightly better than humans.

Human drivers have nearly 100% accurate object recognition and in milliseconds. It's what we evolved for. Can AI do the same?

nandakandamandaJune 19  09:32 pm JST

'5 dead' in the title should be more like 'five people/humans dead'. The crash killed several animals too.

People are more important than animals. A lot more.

And in any Journalism 101 class, they teach that headlines should be succinct and focused on the main point.

People being killed is the main point. Not pigs.