22 injured in tour bus crash in Tokyo, driver arrested at the scene

Twenty-two people on a tour bus in Tokyo were injured when the bus crashed on National Route 8 in the center of the capital on Wednesday.

The bus, carrying 30 passengers in total, careened into the central divider on the road and also hit a traffic light pole, local police said.

The bus driver, a 58-year-old male, was arrested at the scene, with the driver, according to local media reports, stating that he wasabsent-minded when he crashed the bus.

The bus was on a return journey to JR Kamata station when the accident occurred, having transported the passengers on a day trip to Lake Kawaguchi in Yamanashi Prefecture, as well as other spots.

The latest accident involving a bus and possible driver negligence, sub-standard protocols for driver safety and health, as well as non-specific routes being given to drivers to follow in a bid to offer cheaper fares, follows on the heels of a ski tour bus crashing in Nagano Prefecture and killing 15 last week.

Camera footage released by the transport ministry Wednesday showed the bus may well have been speeding and swerving on the highway 250 meters from the crash site.

The bus carrying mostly young students occurred at around 2 a.m. local time last Friday on National Route 18, about 2 km south of the JR Karuizawa station.

Police and investigators confirmed that the road conditions were not icy and investigations into the cause of the accident are still underway, as the entire nations bus operators safety standards have been thrown under the spotlight.

The tour bus departed from Shinjuku in central Tokyo on Thursday night, veered onto the opposite lane of the road after accelerating around an S-curve turn, before hitting a guard rail and flipping over.

The tour bus, full of skiers on its way to the Kitashiga highlands in the northern part of Nagano, ended up on its side four meters down a wooded ravine off a mountainous road between Nagano and Gunma prefectures.

Prefectural police have said the bus was most likely speeding, due to the extent the guardrail was displaced, compounded now by the new video footage.

The two crashes in the space of a week will be of great concern to the transport ministry, with sources saying Wednesday that the conclusion of both investigations will likely lead to new protocols to improve tour bus safety, if not legislation, to ensure better safety measures are introduced and adhered to.