CEDAR CITY, Utah (Kyodo) — A 27-year-old Japanese bus driver was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison by a U.S. district court on Aug. 5, over an accident that killed three Japanese tourists and injured 12 others in Utah in August last year.

Before facing the ruling, he tearfully apologized at the court.

He had both work and student visas, and was working for a bus company in Utah and studying at a university in Nevada at the time of the accident.