NAGANO, Apr 26 (News On Japan) - A passenger car was captured speeding across the frame from left to right by a security camera just moments before a fatal crash in Iida City, Nagano Prefecture, that claimed the lives of four vocational school students.
The accident occurred shortly after 12:30 p.m. on April 24th along an embankment road that runs parallel to the Tenryu River.
Footage shows the vehicle racing past an area about 500 meters before the crash site at an extremely high speed. Even when passing a white mini-truck, the car did not appear to slow down.
With no side roads between the point captured on video and the crash site, authorities believe the vehicle was traveling at approximately 120 kilometers per hour.
The car was carrying four second-year students from the Automobile Maintenance Department of Nagano Prefectural Iida Technical College, all of whom died in the crash.
On April 25th, a friend of Ren Sugisaki, one of the victims, visited the site to lay flowers in remembrance.
"We still had so much we could have done together... He was only 20 years old," said the grieving friend.
A local resident who uses the same road daily commented, "Even so, people tend to speed here quite a bit. We’re very careful, but whenever cars approach, we always pull over and stop."
Given the high speed involved, police are conducting a detailed investigation into the circumstances leading up to the accident.
Source: FNN