TOKYO, Jan. 21 -- Bus driver Yoshio Fukumoto may wonder for years what would have happened had he hit his bus's brakes a second later than he did, when Japan's massive earthquake struck earlier this week. The lives of Fukumoto and three of his passengers literally hung in the balance when a section of the highway he was driving on collapsed during Tuesday's quake in western Japan, leaving his bus teetering precariously on the edge of an overpass. 'Since the heavy engine is in the rear of the bus, I don't think it would have slipped down,' the driver said in an interview with Japan's largest newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, printed Saturday. 'But if the bus had been full, it probably would not have been able to make a complete stop.' Fukumoto, 52, had been driving passengers on their way home from the Nozawa ski area in Nagano, and was heading for the Sannomiya train station when the devastating temblor struck early Tuesday. Most of the 43 bus passengers had gotten off in Kyoto and Osaka, but there were three women in their 20s still on the bus. Another driver who had been assigned to relieve Fukumoto at the end of his shift also was on board. As the bus cruised along at a speed of about 40 miles per hour (64 kph), Fukuoka said he noticed a 'strange gleam of light' flash before him, followed by violent jolts and swaying. Instinctively and desperately, Fukumota said he slammed on the brakes as he lost control of the steering wheel.
The bus wobbled from the shaking and then suddenly, Fukumoto said the vehicle felt as though the front wheels had fallen off. When he looked up, he saw that a section of the road ahead had fallen and a white car in front of him had fallen into the deep chasm. 'It was like a painting of hell,' he told the newspaper. Fukumoto said he kept expecting the bus to fall into the gap as he shut off the engine and pulled the hand brakes with all his might. Meanwhile, his colleague woke the three passengers, who had been sleeping in the center of the bus, and carried them off in his arms. Fukumoto left shortly after, fearful that his movements would knock the bus off balance and send it toppling. One or two minutes felt like half an hour, he said. The five walked nearly a mile (1.6 km) along the expressway until they reached an emergency exit. Along the way, they saw a crushed truck in flames with the apparently dead driver still inside. Tuesday's quake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, killed more than 4,600 people, injured another 23,700 and devastated the port city of Kobe, about 313 miles (500 km) west of Tokyo. icm-mdc-lc
