Saturday, January 23, 2016

MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) is largely to blame: Causes and background of the bus accident in Nagano




The bus accident that occurred on the Usui Bypass, Nagano Prefecture killed twelve passengers, all university students, and two drivers. This is the most serious bus accident since the one that happened in January 1985 and claimed twenty five lives. The losses of many youths’ lives are tremendous to Japanese society. As the media have reported, both the travel agent, Keyth Tour, which planned the ski tour, and the bus operator, E.S.P., had organized and managed their tours in a very sloppy manner. Keyth Tour had already had negative reputations on the Internet even before the accident. Not only buses but also services of hotels arranged by the travel agent were criticized as being of poor quality – “no bath towel or toothbrush in a room”, “It’s a dormitory rather than a hotel”, and “It’s funny rather than frustrating”. The ski tour is typically cheap and nasty. (KUROGANE Ko, Safety Issues Research Group)

「大甘行政処分」国交省の責任は大きい~長野バス事故の原因とその背景

長野県・碓氷バイパスで起きたスキーツアーバス事故は、若者を中心に14人が死亡する惨事となった。自然災害などバス事業者の責任でない事故を除けば、1985年1月の犀川スキーバス事故(死者25人)以来の悲劇だ。未来ある若者の犠牲が日本社会に与えた損失は計り知れないほど大きい。ツアーを企画した旅行会社「キースツアー」と運行を請け負ったバス会社「イーエスピー」社のずさんな管理体制については、メディアで報道されているとおりだろう。キースツアーに関していえば、事故前から利用者のインターネット上での評価もさんざんだ。バス以外にも、同社が手配したホテルについて「部屋にバスタオルや歯ブラシすらない」「ホテルというより合宿所」「怒りを通り越し、もはやネタとしか思えない」などという手厳しい評価が並ぶ。「安かろう悪かろう」の典型例と言ってよい。(安全問題研究会・黒鉄好)


1 comment:

DB said...

Yes, these kinds of articles are important. BUT this blog is about Labor. Can we see more stories about the struggles of the labor movement here in Japan. Not just nukes and comfort women.