THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 29, 2025 at 18:57 JST
Firefighters work to extinguish burning vehicles at the scene of a multi-vehicle accident caused by icy road conditions near the Minakami Interchange on the outbound lanes of the Kan-etsu Expressway at 1:10 a.m. on Dec. 27. (Ayano Nakazawa)
The multi-vehicle pileup on the Kan-Etsu Expressway in Gunma Prefecture was a culmination of a series of separate accidents and not caused by a single collision, prefectural police said.
Two people were killed and 26 injured in the 67-vehicle pileup on outbound lanes near the Minakami Interchange in the town of Minakami on Dec. 26.
According to the prefectural police’s expressway patrol unit, a midsize truck skidded on snow and crashed alone. It was then rear-ended by a large truck around 7:30 p.m.
When police officers arrived at the scene, the two trucks had already been moved to the shoulder of the expressway.
However, police found that other accidents involving three to five vehicles had occurred, including a single-vehicle crash into a guardrail and a collision between vehicles.
While officers were dealing with the accidents, additional vehicles crashed one after another. A vehicle fire is believed to have broken out at this time.
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