The parents of two Japanese students who were among 155 people killed in an Alpine tunnel fire in Austria in November 2000 have left for Austria for a court ruling Thursday on the cable car operator's responsibility for the disaster.
The father of a male junior high school student from Fukushima Prefecture, said Tuesday, "I want to see for myself what kind of decision the Austrian judge makes."
The others are the parents of a female college student from Kanagawa Prefecture.
The two were among 10 Japanese who died in the fire. The cable car caught fire inside a 3.2-km tunnel through the 3,203-meter Mount Kitzsteinhorn on Nov. 11, 2000.
Sixteen people, including executives of the cable car operator, are being tried for professional negligence resulting in death and other charges.
The defense has pleaded not guilty for all the defendants, saying the accident was not foreseeable. The prosecution argued the disaster was due to a series of oversights, including the illegal installation of heaters in the cable car.