5 Yrs Sought for Bus Company Head over 2016 Fatal Bus Crash

Nagano, Oct. 11 (Jiji Press)--Public prosecutors asked Nagano District Court on Tuesday to give a prison term of five years to both the president and a former employee of a Tokyo-based bus company over a 2016 deadly ski tour bus crash in central Japan.

Misaku Takahashi, 61, president of the firm called ESP, and former employee Tsuyoshi Arai, 54, are charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The bus crash happened in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, on Jan. 15, 2016, leaving 15 people, mainly university students, dead and 26 others injured.

According to the indictment, the two allegedly had an inexperienced male driver operate the tour bus without providing him with necessary training, although they were able to predict that the driver might cause an accident while driving for a long time at night on a mountain pass in the winter.

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