A minibus carrying people with intellectual disabilities tumbled off a road and fell about 5 meters into a wooded area Monday morning in Osaka Prefecture, leaving 10 of the 18 people aboard injured, police said.
The accident took place just after 10 a.m. in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture, as the bus was heading to a nearby welfare facility. The vehicle left the road in a section with no guardrail and landed on its roof.
The people in the minibus were in their 20s to 60s, including the 67-year-old driver and a staff member from the welfare facility.
The police suspect negligence on the part of the driver, because he said he steered the bus to the left of the one-lane road when he saw a vehicle coming from the opposite direction.
"This is not a busy road," said a woman who lives nearby. "So many cars drive at high speeds. We've had accidents before, but I never thought that such an accident (like this) would happen."