NAGANO (Kyodo) Four people were killed and at least 10 others injured early Thursday in a pileup involving 21 vehicles, mostly trucks, on the Chuo Expressway in Nagano Prefecture, police and firefighters said.
Of the four, a 3-year-old boy and a woman believed to be his mother died after their car was crushed by trucks. The car also carried a critically injured man -- believed to be the boy's father -- and a girl, thought to be his sister, who sustained heavy injuries, including a skull fracture.
A man believed to be the driver of the truck that initially blocked the road and caused the pileup was found dead beneath another truck.
Another man who was trapped in a truck and later rescued, died shortly after when his heart and lungs stopped.