update on the kuruma crash :
http://www.japantoday.com/category/nationa...-straits-6-hurtJapanese destroyer tried to stop before collision: defense chief
Wednesday 28th October, 11:21 AM JST
KITAKYUSHU —
A Japanese destroyer that collided with a South Korean container ship Tuesday night in the Kammon Strait in western Japan tried to stop before the crash, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Wednesday.
The Japan Coast Guard, which began inspecting the ships Wednesday to look into the cause of the accident, said the captain of the South Korean ship told investigators that the 7,400-ton Carina Star was attempting to pass another ship ahead of it when it collided with the oncoming destroyer Kurama.
Kitazawa told a news conference in Tokyo that all the 297 crew members aboard the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s 5,200-ton Kurama were on guard when passing the strait between Yamaguchi and Fukuoka prefectures, as the area is considered to be a bottleneck where many vessels come and go through the swift flowing water.
‘‘The (MSDF) vessel was going backwards, but it was too late’’ to avert the collision, the minister said, citing information provided by the Kurama’s captain. The two ships caught fire after the crash, leaving six crew members on the MSDF vessel slightly injured, the Defense Ministry said.
No injuries were reported on the South Korean vessel, which was sailing from Busan to Osaka. But its containers and the Kurama’s bow caught fire immediately after the collision at 7:56 p.m. Tuesday.
Aboard the destroyer, one person suffered lacerations, two became sick after inhaling smoke from the fire, and three others were later injured while fighting the fire, but no one was in serious condition, the coast guard said.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters Wednesday morning, ‘‘We have to clarify who is responsible.’’
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said at a press conference that the incident is ‘‘extremely regrettable’’ and that the government has made all-out efforts to collect information and probe the cause of the accident.
Kitazawa said he told senior Defense Ministry officials and Self-Defense Forces personnel to be ‘‘fully aware of the responsibility’’ and ask themselves whether they have ‘‘a sense of complacency.’’
‘‘I want the ministry officials and SDF personnel to enforce discipline and cultivate their skills by fully recognizing their duty to serve the nation and the people, so that they will not cause problems and worries again,’’ he said.
The coast guard is examining the extent of the damage both vessels sustained and is also questioning their crew on the positions of the vessels and their surveillance status at the time of the accident, with the possibility of filing criminal charges, it said.
Senior Vice Defense Minister Kazuya Shimba, who was dispatched to the accident site, said early Wednesday after observing the Kurama from the Fukuoka side of the dock that the damage along the bow was ‘‘likely more than 5 meters long.’’
The Kurama’s bow crashed into the right side of the container vessel’s bow and a fire started near a storehouse of paint cans in the bow, according to the Defense Ministry.
At the time of the accident, visibility was 3 to 4 kilometers and the wind and the waves were calm. The Kurama was alerted by the JCG about the possibility of a crash, but the vessel barely managed to evacuate its crew members from the area near the bow, according to Kitazawa.
The Kurama was on its way to Sasebo base in Nagasaki Prefecture at the time, after attending an MSDF fleet review Sunday in Sagami Bay off Kanagawa Prefecture. It was a flagship vessel carrying Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who joined the triennial event in place of Hatoyama.
In February last year, the MSDF Aegis destroyer Atago collided with a fishing boat off Chiba Prefecture, killing two men—a father and son.
Both Hirano and Kitazawa said the government responded swiftly to the accident.
In the Atago case, then Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba was not informed of the collision for more than 90 minutes, stirring concerns about the ministry’s information-relaying capacity. Kitazawa, however, received the first report of the Kurama collision 15 minutes after it happened.
