1 dead, 3 injured in multi-vehicle crash in central Japan

One person has died and three others were injured in a multi-vehicle accident involving more than a dozen vehicles on a national highway in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, early Sunday morning, police said.



The accident occurred shortly after 5:30 a.m. local time on National Route 50 in Sano City, Tochigi. According to police, tea leaves loaded on the bed of a large truck spilled onto the roadway over a stretch of about 500 meters, causing the following vehicles to skid and collide with other cars and roadside barriers.



A total of four people were injured and taken to the hospital. A 78-year-old man had been in critical condition when he was taken to the hospital, where his death was later confirmed.



Authorities are questioning the driver of the truck that carried the tea leaves and are investigating how the tea leaves came to fall from the vehicle.