- At least 10 dead in Chinese fireworks factory explosion just weeks ahead of Chinese New Year
An overnight tour bus on its way to a ski resort in central Japan slid down the mountainside in the early hours of Friday, killing at least 14 passengers and injuring 27 others.
Fire and disaster management officials said that the bus veered off to the opposite lane on a mountain road near a famous resort town of Karuizawa, in Nagano prefecture, ramming through a guardrail and sliding down the mountainside.
The chartered bus was carrying 41 people, including two drivers who were taking turns, when it crashed in the early hours Friday.
Japanese media say the bus fell three meters (10 feet) down the mountainside and landed on its side, with its front window bashed in.
There was no snow or ice on the road surface.
The accident is the latest in a series of highway crashes involving tour buses, which experts attribute to harsh working conditions for long-distance bus drivers.
A fatal highway tour bus crash in 2012 that killed seven on their way to Disneyland prompted some legal steps to improve driving safety, but accidents have continued. There were several last year, including one that involved two deaths and 26 injuries.
In the meantime, ten people were killed and seven injured Thursday in an explosion at a fireworks factory in central China just weeks ahead of the Chinese New Year, authorities said.
The Tongxu county government in Henan province said the cause of the blast was not immediately clear and was under investigation.
China is less than a month away from new year celebrations, when holiday revelers set off fireworks. There are frequent fireworks-related incidents at factories in the weeks leading to the holiday, as China generally has a poor record in workplace safety.
On Wednesday, an explosion at a machinery factory killed four workers in the eastern city of Shanghai.
Tongxu county was in the spotlight recently when local authorities ordered the demolition of a gigantic statute of communist revolutionary Mao Zedong, after the structure drew sneers from a large segment of the public.
NBC with additional report from MSN
