4 injured in crashes involving 16 cars in Osaka

OSAKA - At least four people were hurt on Tuesday morning in several traffic accidents involving 16 vehicles in the western Japanese prefecture of Osaka, local press reported.

The first accident happened at around 6:30 am local time when passenger cars, which would avoid another vehicle which was already stopping due to its single-car crash, collided into each other on the southbound side of a regional motorway in Sakai City of the prefecture according to the country's public broadcaster Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK).

The report added that the accident further caused a chain reaction of more cars colliding into one another on the same traffic lane.

And shortly after the southbound crash, a total of five cars also collided with one another on the northbound lanes of the motorway.

The report said that the injured four, between the ages of 30 and 70, were carried to hospital after the multiple accidents. Details of the crashes are under police investigation.