An accident occurred in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, when a truck dropped "tea leaves" over a stretch exceeding 500 meters on the road, causing following vehicles to slip and collide in a 12-car pileup. Four people were injured and one died after the victim got out of his vehicle to check the scene and was struck by an oncoming car in the opposite lane.
Local police in Tochigi Prefecture reported that the accident happened early Sunday morning (4 Jan) on a two-lane road in Sano City, eastern Japan. The cause was a large amount of tea leaves scattered across the road from a truck over a distance of more than 500 meters.
The wet tea leaves made the road surface slippery, similar to an oil slick, causing the vehicles behind to skid and crash into each other in a chain collision involving 12 cars. Rescue teams rushed four injured victims to hospitals urgently, and later confirmed one fatality.
The deceased was a 78-year-old man from Saitama Prefecture. Initial investigations revealed that after his truck slid and crashed, he got out to inspect the situation but was then hit violently by an oncoming vehicle traveling in the opposite lane, leading to his death. The other three injured individuals sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The cleanup operation was notified by one of the victims at about 05:40 local time, when visibility was still poor. Authorities temporarily closed the road and deployed personnel and heavy machinery to scrape and sweep the tea leaves stuck on the road surface to prevent further accidents.
Police are currently investigating to identify the truck responsible for dropping the tea leaves and are also probing the driver who struck the deceased to proceed with legal action.