Bus Headed for Ski Area Plows Through Guardrail; 25 Die
A chartered bus taking college students to a ski resort crashed through a guardrail today on a snow-covered road and fell 12 feet into a reservoir, killing 25 people, police said.
Police spokesman Masataka Kanaki said 21 people escaped or were pulled by divers from the bus, which sank in a 30-foot deep reservoir of the Sai River on the outskirts of Nagano City, about 100 miles northwest of Tokyo. Eight of those rescued were hospitalized.
The dead included eight men and 14 women students and an official of Nihon Welfare University in central Japan. They left Sunday night for Shiga Heights, Japan’s most popular ski resort. Two drivers of the bus also were killed.
The bus, one of three chartered by the university, ran off National Highway No. 19 shortly before dawn, police said. The two other buses arrived at Shiga Heights with those aboard unaware of the accident.
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