TOKYO – A Japanese driving school was ordered on Tuesday to pay damages for failing to evacuate
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students and staff quickly enough ahead of the 2011 tsunami, local media reported.
The Sendai District court ruled that the school in prefecture of Miyagi should pay 1.9 billion yen (16.1 [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]million dollars) to relatives of 25 students and an employee who died.
After the magnitude-9 quake struck on March 11, 2011, the driving school first kept pupils and staff on [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]the premises, about 750 metres from the shore in Yamamoto town, for an hour before deciding to evacuate.
It said they were too late to escape the waves that caught 23 of the people in fleeing cars, two still on foot and one member of staff who had been told to stay at the driving school and clean up.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
“The school had failed in its duty to foresee the tsunami and transport the students to safety,’’ Presiding Judge Kenji Takamiya said.
The damages suit is the fourth filed by families of disaster victims against schools or businesses to make it to a district court ruling.
No fewer than 18,500 people were left dead or missing by the disaster, which also triggered a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. (dpa/NAN)
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