One dead, 17 injured in a 134-car disaster in Japan

A massive pile-up of 134 cars in a snowstorm on Tuesday killed a man and injured 17 in northern Japan, authorities said.

The accident – which took eight hours to resolve – also stranded about 200 people on the Tohoku Expressway in Miyagi.

The crash came when the region was in the middle of a blizzard that carried gusts of wind up to 60 miles per hour and would dump snow nearly 60 miles per hour in northern Japan, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

The pileup was caused by a truck colliding with a passenger car shortly before noon local time amid poor visibility in the storm.

The storm also forced transit officials to close the East Japan Railway, Kyodo said.

The details of the dead man and the extent of the injuries were not readily available.

With pole wires

Cars are stuck on the snowy Tohoku Expressway in the city of Osaki in northern Japan after a car accident and traffic jam on January 19, 2021.
Cars are stuck on the snowy Tohoku Expressway in the city of Osaki in northern Japan after a car accident and traffic jam on January 19, 2021.
Yusuke Ogata / Kyodo News via AP

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