Police probe fatal avalanche
UTSONOMIYA: Police have opened an investigation into the organisers of a mountaineering lesson during which seven high school students and a teacher were killed by an avalanche at a ski resort in eastern Japan, investigators said on Tuesday.
Teachers at the site cancelled plans to go mountain-climbing because of an avalanche advisory and strong wind but judged that students could still conduct snow-wading training, a school official said. But an expert said they should have been aware of the risk of an avalanche around the training areas citing heavy snowfall there at the time.
The police are interrogating relevant people as to whether sufficient steps had been taken to ensure the safety of the students taking part in the exercise, suspecting the teachers of professional negligence resulting in injury or death.
Although the lesson had been changed from mountain climbing to snow-wading, Tochigi prefecture’s high school athletic federation was unaware of the change because management of the programme was left entirely to teachers at the site, a senior federation official said.
Another school official, who was also struck by the avalanche, said no one had talked about the risk of an avalanche and that it was “totally unexpected”, when asked if anyone warned of the risk before the training.
A mountain rescue team member said: “The students were hit by the avalanche while taking a break during training.”
The boys and teacher of Otawara High School’s competitive mountain club were crushed to death in one of the deadliest snowslide disasters in decades in Japan.
By visual assessment, the snow on the slope appears to have slid about 100 to 200m. Rescue workers on Tuesday flew drones over Nasuonsen Family Ski Resort to assess the size of avalanche and damage inflicted by it.
The accident occurred as an advisory of avalanches was issued around the ski resort, with more than 30cm of snowfall on Sunday night and early Monday.
Some experts pointed out that it could be a surface avalanche, which is a sliding of a layer of new snowfall.
The team did not have avalanche beacons that emit radio signals to locate people in the snow.
The eight victims are Atsuki Takase, 16, Yuzuru Asai, 17, Minoru Ogane, 17, Masaki Oku, 16, Hidetomo Hagiwara, 16, Yusuke Kaburagi, 17, Kosuke Sato, 16, and Yusuke Ketsuka, the 29-year-old teacher.
Forty people also sustained injuries, including seven seriously, in the avalanche. Fifty-one students and 11 teachers from seven high schools were taking part in the three-day programme.