関越バス事故から８年　コロナで県外遺族は慰霊できず―群馬

　群馬県藤岡市の関越自動車道で２０１２年、乗客７人が死亡、３８人が重軽傷を負った高速ツアーバス事故から２９日で８年となった。遺族らは例年この日に事故現場を訪れて慰霊を続けてきたが、新型コロナウイルス拡大の影響で今年は県外に住むほとんどの関係者が参加できなかった。
　事故で母の直美さん＝当時（４４）＝を亡くしたことをきっかけに群馬県警の警察官になった山瀬俊貴さん（２７）＝前橋市＝は、発生時刻の午前４時４０分、遺族を代表して現場近くに設けられた祭壇に手を合わせた。（2020/04/29-10:57）

Japan marked on Wednesday eight years of a deadly crash of an express tour bus in the city of Fujioka in the eastern prefecture of Gunma, but most of the bereaved relatives living outside the prefecture were unable to visit the accident site for remembering their loved ones as the novel coronavirus is raging across the nation.
   At 4:40 a.m. (7:40 p.m. Tuesday GMT), the exact time when the accident occurred eight years ago, Toshiki Yamase, 27, who lost his mother, Naomi, then 44, in the incident, laid flowers on an altar set up near the site of the crash, representing bereaved relatives.
   On April 29, 2012, the tour bus heading for Tokyo Disney Resort in the city of Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, from the city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, crashed into a roadside sound insulation wall on the Kanetsu Expressway in Fujioka, leaving seven passengers dead and 38 other people injured.
   Yamase, an officer of the Gunma prefectural police department, had been told by his relatives living outside Gunma that they wound visit the site after the coronavirus pandemic is brought under control. Yamase chose his job, motivated by the death of his mother in the traffic accident.
   "I want to continue praying for the victims at this place, at this time so that the accident will continue to be remembered," Yamase said, renewing his resolve to keep working on preventing traffic accidents as a police officer.