Twelve people including foreign tourists were injured in a traffic accident involving a coach, a tractor trailer and a passenger car Friday in Furano, Hokkaido, northern Japan, police said.
Of those injured, the coach's driver and nine foreign nationals aboard were sent to hospital with injuries believed to be nonlife threatening, police and local rescue authorities said.
The truck driver and the driver of the third vehicle, a passenger car, also sustained injuries, the authorities said.
The surface of the two-lane road was covered with packed snow and ice at the time of the accident at about 8:40 a.m. in central Hokkaido, according to police.
As the truck heading south slipped on the icy road, its trailer crossed over to the opposite lane and hit the right front part of the coach heading north, the police said.
Just before the collision, the trailer lightly hit the car as well.
