Shimane in the news

My subscription to The Daily Yomiuri has turned out to be quite worthwhile. Though most of the news and advertisements are centered in Tokyo, today's DY has a story, well, kind of featuring Shimane.

Driver lets woman off bus on Hamada Expressway
The Yomiuri Shimbun
HIROSHIMA—A bus driver has been fined for stopping on the Hamada Expressway in Chiyodacho, Hiroshima Prefecture, to let a 76-year-old woman get off the bus, it was learned Saturday.

The express bus run by Iwami Kotsu, which is based in Masuda, Shimane Prefecture, was traveling from Hamada in the prefecture to JR Shin-Hiroshima Station. The 53-year-old driver passed Chiyoda-Nichi bus stop at about 10 a.m. on Nov. 13 without noticing that the bell to stop had been pushed by the woman.

The woman asked him to stop and let her off on the expressway near a door to a road for emergency vehicles. But after leaving the bus, the woman found that the door was locked and was forced to walk back to the station on the side of the expressway. A driver who saw her walking informed police, who came to pick her up.

Yep, good ol' Shimane-ken. Let other prefectures make the news with reports of their group suicides and anti-social family-murderers. We'll take care of the negligent bus drivers.