Bus Operator Searched over Fatal Accident near Mt. Fuji

Hanno, Saitama Pref., Oct. 14 (Jiji Press)--Police searched the headquarters and an office of a bus operator in Hanno, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, on Friday over the previous day's deadly bus accident near Mount Fuji in central Japan.

About a dozen police officers entered the Misugi Kanko Bus headquarters after arriving there around 9 a.m. (midnight Thursday GMT).

The police will conduct a detailed investigation into the accident, seizing documents and other materials relating to the driver's work situation and the maintenance status of the bus that overturned in the accident.

The accident occurred around 11:50 a.m. Thursday during a one-day sightseeing tour on a road that runs downhill from the fifth station of Mount Fuji's Subashiri trail toward the city of Gotenba, Shizuoka Prefecture.

The bus climbed up a slope on the left side of the road and overturned onto its right side. At the accident scene, there were tire marks that ran straight toward the slope, according to investigative sources.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]