19 injured in accident with Big Island tour bus
By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
GLENWOOD, Hawai'i — Eighteen Japanese visitors and their tour bus driver were injured yesterday when a Jack's Tours minibus ran off Volcano Highway and into a drainage ditch.
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Nine people with minor injuries, including the 29-year-old male tour driver who suffered a broken right leg, were transported to the hospital.
The names and hometowns of the injured were not disclosed last night.
Police said the tour group was on its way to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park around 12:15 p.m. when a car in front of the minibus tried to turn left. The tour driver swerved to avoid hitting the car and ended up in the ditch.
Acting Fire Capt. Warren Sumida said the passengers and driver were still in the minibus when emergency crews arrived.
"It was rainy and wet. I guess they were more in shock than frantic," he said. "They were pretty calm about it."
The first group of injured reached the hospital emergency room about one hour after the fire units were notified at 12:23 p.m. Hilo Medical Center officials provided no information on the injured last night.
Ambulances from Kea'au, Pahoa, Volcano and Hilo took the most seriously injured to the hospital, about 22 miles from the crash scene just mauka of the Hirano Store in Glenwood Village. The tour company sent another bus to transport others.
Hirano Store manager Eric Inouye did not witness the accident but watched as police and firefighters dealt with the aftermath.
"They had to pry the driver out of the bus," Inouye said.
The driver of the car that the bus swerved to avoid is a 26-year-old Big Island woman.
Jeff Miyashiro, manager of Jack's Tours, a locally owned Hilo company, said he could not provide any information about the crash or the home prefectures of the victims, who had been booked on the tour by the Japan Travel Bureau.
Officials at JTB declined to comment yesterday.
Jack's Tours conducts 10 to 20 volcano tours daily for Japanese visitors who fly into Hilo from Honolulu and return the same day. Miyashiro said arrangements were being made to get tour group members back to Honolulu.
Advertiser staff writers Johnny Brannon and Jessica Webster contributed to this report.
