Five people died and six were injured in a multiple pileup early Saturday morning on an expressway in Mie Prefecture after a large truck, whose driver had apparently fallen asleep, crashed into lines of holidaymakers' cars, police said.
Serious traffic accidents were reported in other parts of the country the same day as the annual rush of people leaving for their hometowns for the Bon midsummer holidays got into full swing.
At around 5:40 a.m., a large tractor-trailer rammed into a string of cars stuck in a traffic jam on the Higashi Meihan Expressway in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, causing a fire that engulfed the truck and three other vehicles, according to the police.