One person was killed and four others injured in a pileup involving four vehicles, including a minivehicle that caught fire, on the Kinki expressway in Osaka's Hirano Ward on Saturday morning, highway patrol police said.
Kazuhiko Nakamura, the 55-year-old driver of a large truck from Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, was arrested on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in the accident, the police said. Nakamura's truck also caught fire but he escaped unhurt.
The police said the driver of the minivehicle was killed and four others suffered minor injuries in the 7:45 a.m. accident.
The identities of the victims were not immediately known.
According to police, Nakamura's truck hit a light truck from behind and later collided with a station wagon and the minivehicle.
Traffic was halted for about two hours between the Yao and Nagahara interchanges on the expressway.
12 hurt in U.S. crash
LOS ANGELES (Kyodo) Twelve Japanese tourists suffered minor injuries Friday morning when a sightseeing bus they were traveling in was hit by a light truck on an expressway near Las Vegas, Japanese diplomats said.
The Japanese Consulate General in San Francisco said the bus was struck by the truck. The bus driver also suffered injuries and was taken to a hospital.
The driver of the truck was killed in the accident.
Two other vehicles were involved in the crash and one other person was injured.
The 12 Japanese tourists were heading for Arizona when the accident occurred at around 8:30 a.m. local time.