On Friday night, a serious chain car accident occurred on a highway in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, on December 26th, with more than 50 cars losing control and crashing into each other, sparking fires. The incident has already resulted in at least one fatality and 26 injuries, with 5 of them being severe. The specific cause of the accident is still under further investigation.
According to reports from Japanese media, the accident took place around 7:30 p.m. on Friday at the Kanetsu Expressway near Mizukami-cho in Gunma Prefecture. Police received a report that two trucks collided, triggering a large-scale chain reaction accident involving over 50 cars, with around 17 vehicles catching fire.
Videos circulating on the internet show a scene of extreme devastation, with multiple vehicles engulfed in flames, intense fires sending massive fireballs into the sky, explosions ringing out intermittently, and thick snow covering the ground. A trailer presumed to be carrying cars was also consumed by the flames, with multiple sedans on board at the time of the incident.
After the incident, firefighters swiftly arrived at the scene to carry out rescue operations, spending approximately 7 and a half hours to completely extinguish the fire.
A driver who witnessed the accident recounted, “Everyone was braking, but the steering wheel was completely uncontrollable, feeling like one car after another was crashing into the rear.”
An eyewitness who filmed the scene remarked, “About three cars ahead, a minivan first emitted smoke, and the fire quickly spread. Due to the location being a curved downhill section, rear vehicles failed to notice in time and kept colliding.”
Preliminary statistics reveal that a 77-year-old woman tragically lost her life in the accident, with at least 26 individuals injured, including 5 in critical condition.
Due to the accident, several sections of the Kanetsu Expressway remained closed to traffic as of Saturday morning, with authorities yet to announce a specific time for resuming traffic flow.
Police indicated that at the time of the incident, the area was under a blizzard warning, with the highway covered in snow and icy conditions present, preliminarily suggesting that slippery roads may have led to the vehicles losing control and causing the crash. However, details of the case are still being clarified further.