People visited on Monday the site where a ski tour bus crashed in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, to pray for the souls of the victims one month after the accident that took the lives of 15 people.
Soichi Shiokawa and his wife, Reiko, from Komoro in the prefecture, offered flowers at the site, which is located on the Usui Bypass of National Highway Route 18. Shiokawa, 68, said he is a graduate of Hosei University, which four of the victims attended.
“I’m heartbroken that many young people were killed in the accident,” Shiokawa said.
On Feb. 7, bereaved relatives gathered to form a group aimed at pursuing the legal responsibility of the tour bus operator and others, and at making proposals to the government on how to prevent similar accidents from happening. The group will also work to provide psychological care to the bereaved families.
The group was named the association of the bereaved families of the Karuizawa ski bus crash incident. The word incident was incorporated into the name from the wish that investigative authorities will seek criminal charges in the case.
Yoshinori Tahara of Suita, Osaka Prefecture, is the organizer of the group. Tahara, 50, lost his 19-year-old son Kan, a sophomore at Tokyo Metropolitan University.
“There’s no way our family members will come back,” Tahara said. “But we want to console each other and move forward to prevent accidents like this from ever happening again.(The Yomiuri Shimbun)
Link: http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002750566
20
