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3 students hurt in Gifu car crash

A car veered onto a sidewalk and rammed 8 high school students riding their bikes
A car veered onto a sidewalk and rammed 8 high school students riding their bikes (NHK)

GIFU (TR) – Two cars collided head-on before one of them veered onto a sidewalk and rammed a column of high school cyclists on Wednesday, leaving two with serious injuries.

Housewife Chiaki Yamada, 40, collided head-on with university student Seiya Kamiyama, 21, causing Yamada’s car to veer onto a sidewalk and ram a column of eight high school students riding their bikes at an intersection in Takayaiseden, Kitagata City, at around 12:40 p.m., the Asahi Shimbun reports (August 3).

Police said three students from Gifu Senior High School Of Agriculture & Forestry were hospitalized. Two victims suffered serious injuries like pelvic fractures and another was lightly injured.

Yamada’s eldest 2-year-old son who was in the car also suffered light injuries.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident, which occurred at an intersection with clear visibility and no traffic lights.

The female students were members of their school’s team for soft tennis, Japan’s spin on tennis that uses different rules and softer balls. They were heading back to school after practicing at a tennis court in Mizuho City.

Yasuharu Moriya, 58, the Gifu high school’s vice principle, prayed for the “safe return of the students to school, even just a day earlier.”