Photo/Illutration The charred express bus is seen at an Aichi prefectural police facility on Aug. 22 after the fiery crash on the Nagoya Expressway earlier that day. The rear portion of the vehicle is seen in the forefront of the photo. (Tadashi Mizowaki)

NAGOYA--A surviving passenger of a deadly bus crash here on Aug. 22 told of hanging on while the bus overturned and fleeing the burning vehicle amid the flames and smoke. 

“An accident that I never thought I would be involved in occurred, and I’m just grateful that I’m still alive,” the man told The Asahi Shimbun.

The express bus bound for Nagoya Airport burst into flames just after 10 a.m. after overturning on the Nagoya Expressway's Komaki Route in Nagoya. Two people died and seven others were injured.

The seven included the driver of a car that crashed into the overturned bus.  

The man said that seven passengers, including himself, and a driver were aboard the bus. The vehicle, which had a capacity of 61 passengers, was only sparsely filled.

The man was sitting next to a window on the right side, in the front section of the vehicle.

At around 10:15 a.m., he heard a loud bang like the bus had suddenly hit something, before feeling a powerful shock.

He didn’t know what was happening as he hadn't noticed anything unusual until just before he heard the loud noise.

The bus overturned on its left side.

The man instinctively clutched an armrest to stop himself from tumbling out of his seat.

He said, however, that he couldn’t move his body for a short time because he felt like he was suffering from whiplash.

Then he saw a small fire in the corridor of the bus that ignited just in front of him.

“The fire spread quickly,” he said. 

It seemed that fuel leaking from the overturned bus caused the small fire to spread. Then, black smoke gradually filled the interior of the bus.

He instinctively thought, “I shouldn’t inhale the smoke.”

He heard someone behind him shouting, “Let's get out quickly!”

When he turned around, he saw a broken window in the back of the bus.

He said, “I just ran toward the direction where the voice came from. I guess I was the last one to evacuate from the bus.”

The fire spread very quickly and enveloped the entire bus.

He said it felt it took about five minutes from when the bus overturned until he could make his way to safety.

Aichi prefectural police announced on Aug. 23 that six surviving passengers and the driver of the car that caught fire after crashing into the overturned bus were all males between the ages of 28 to 53.

The men all sustained minor injuries.

Autopsies on the two deceased victims determined that they were also male adults.

From where their bodies were found in the bus and other information, police believe that they were the 55-year-old driver and a passenger.

It is believed that both men burned to death.

Police also found that all six surviving passengers evacuated from the rear of the burning vehicle. 

According to prefectural police, drivers of other vehicles that were passing by at the time of the accident helped the passengers exit the bus.  

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