Numerous trucks and cars lie on the Hokuriku Expressway after colliding in a 61-vehicle pileup.
IMIZU, Toyama -- Over 30 people were injured, some seriously, in a pileup involving 61 vehicles that occurred on the icy Hokuriku Expressway on Friday night, police said.
Investigators suspect that numerous vehicles skidded on the frozen road, leading to the pileup, and are investigating the exact cause of the accident.
At around 9:45 p.m. on Friday, 61 vehicles -- 19 large trucks and 42 smaller cars and trucks -- collided one after another on a stretch of the Hokuriku Expressway that extended for over one kilometer, prefectural police said.
Five men and a woman were trapped in two vehicles but were rescued at around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday.
A total of 31 people were injured, four of them seriously. At the time of the accident, the maximum speed was limited to 50 kilometers per hour and vehicles without snow chains or snow tires were not allowed to travel on the expressway because it was snowing and the road was frozen. (Mainichi)
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