A 68-year-old bus driver arrested over a recent fatal crash on an expressway in northeastern Japan had been involved in repeated traffic accidents earlier this year, an investigative source said Saturday.
Tetsuo Wakayama has been arrested on suspicion of negligent driving after a minibus carrying members of a senior high school boys’ tennis team crashed into a guardrail on the Banetsu Expressway in Fukushima Prefecture on Wednesday morning while he was at the wheel.
The accident killed a 17-year-old member of the team from Niigata city and injured 20 other people, including two in another vehicle and Wakayama himself.
According to police, the minibus had no dashboard camera.
The source said Wakayama, a resident of Niigata Prefecture, had a history of multiple accidents this year.
Wakayama has so far told investigators that he had “misjudged the speed” and denied having dozed off at the wheel. Police said no skid marks indicating sudden braking were found at the crash site.
The suspect did not possess the proper license required to carry passengers for hire.
Transport authorities searched the bus operator Kanbara Tetsudo Co. in Gosen, Niigata Prefecture, on Friday. According to the Tainai city government in the prefecture, Wakayama worked as a municipal bus driver there for three years through March 2025.
© KYODO
