One person dead, 10 hurt in expressway tunnel pileups in Shizuoka Prefecture

Aug 04, 2017 | News On Japan

Aug 04, 2017 (Japan Times) - A woman on a motorcycle was killed and 10 people were injured in a pair of multiple-vehicle collisions Thursday in an expressway tunnel in Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture, police said.

Five vehicles and a motorcycle collided in the 2.6-km-long tunnel on the Shin-Tomei Expressway around 10:10 a.m., injuring seven people. Another crash, which involved three vehicles, occurred around 100 meters from the site of the first accident, leaving three injured. Sumiko Tominaga, 51, was later pronounced dead, they said.

Police arrested Yu Daibo, a 52-year-old truck driver from Hiroshima Prefecture, at the site of the first pileup on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death and injury.

Daibo told investigators that he caused the accident as he was checking email on a smartphone while driving.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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