15-year-old girl killed by drunk driver being chased by police car

Panicked? Now instead of a fine for speeding up, he has a death on his resume. RIP, poor innocent girl.

This tragedy needn't have happened..... "Suspected of being over the speed limit", so they couldn't be sure, but fancied themselves as Starsky and Hutch and gave Pursuit.

A national highway at 3.00am isn't crowded and surely, being a national highway, wouldn't there be speed cameras to verify and capture the driver's image ? Not justifying the driver's actions, but the cops will never be held even partially to blame.

Very sad news, I feel so bad for this poor young innocent girl, RIP and for this idiot drunk driver, BURN IN HELL!!

Driving under the influence was not right, the police chasing the speeding car were not wrong.

There is no need to chase, cameras and tracking of mobile phone, air wing leave little doubt about the out come...the chances of death resulting from a chase are high. It's 2012 we can track a car! This proves the point, an innocent person was killed. There are numerous ways to end a situation chasing is the last of them. It's not high school. Grow up J-cops in so many ways.

Now instead of a fine for speeding up

That is the way it used to be. But the authorities met out a great deal more than that now. Now if you had one beer two hours ago and drive, you could lose your license and your job. That is Draconian, and Draconian laws did not work out for Draco!

The authorities have set out to put holy terror in the driving populace, and they have succeeded. This is the result.

And the speeding? Limits here in Japan are far too low, and set that way to increase revenue from speeding tickets.

And the article says he was a drunk driver, but you don't even need to get a buzz to get that label now. Zero tolerance has inspired a great deal of laziness among the police, the media, and the populace. Do you see a BAC in the article? No. But everyone happily agrees he was drunk. What you get with zero tolerance is no justice, no second chances, a state of fear and dead teenagers.

People should not run from the police. Police should be fair so as not to encourage people to run. Zero tolerance will only spark a war between otherwise good people and the authorities.

Ok, thumbs down. I now endorse high speed chasers, be they drunk or suicidal let's chase them until they crash into innocent people or stationary objects, there is nothing like ringing a Door bell knowing you have to tell the family a family member is dead. It's a small thing?

Cricky, my thumbs up is for your sarcasm. I agree with you. This whole thing was preventable and unnecessary.

She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. They should have called another unit to barricade the road ahead.

Poor girl. RIP. I hope this guy gets at least 10 years in the klink. A 'health care worker' drinking and driving and then killing someone.... obviously qualified.

I actually agree with ewan. If the criminal tries to escape by a VEHICLE and you try to win a speed match with them where it clearly just gets more and more dangerous, you're putting everyone else's LIVES at risk for something that's not worth it. Nothing is worth putting innocent people's lives at risk for.

So sorry for the loss and sincerely hope a 15 y/o was out with a responsible person at 3 a.m. This is a senseless loss of life. When one gets behind the wheel while under the influence, the police even if wrong, gets a bye. Sad to say.

Hasn't anyone noticed that something, once it has happened, is no longer preventable. So, the only way to prevent an event like this, is for the speeder not to speed, or if he does, the police don't notice it...or if they did notice, they did not pursue. See how easy it is to prevent something? Events like this are constantly NOT HAPPENING; so were these events prevented from happening, or were they never meant to happen? There really is nothing ever accidental about anything that happens. We are all in the force stream that causes events.

They had the license plate, they can easily get the suspect's name, address, etc. Simply send some cops to his house and wait for him to return home. No need to chase the guy who is clearly an accident in the making, especially since it seemed that this guy wasn't really all that drunk, just doing something stupid.

They need to implement the same thing California did after a rash of police chase deaths; simply limit the cops to chasing murderers and those that are suspected of being armed and much more of a danger if they are let go. The rest can be arrested after the fact, they likely have plenty of evidence.

And if the police DID allow drunk people to speed on highways, rather than pursue them, the number of fatalities of innocent people would be much higher. This accident is wholly the fault of the person who caused it: the drunken, speeding driver.

JeffLeeAug. 12, 2012 - 05:56PM JST

And if the police DID allow drunk people to speed on highways, rather than pursue them, the number of fatalities of innocent people would be much higher.

Statistics and studies say that is a completely invalid statement.

I don't understand people who are saying the police did something wrong because they tried to stop a driver that was breaking the law. Suppose they did nothing and he caused an even worse crash. Then you would be asking why they weren't chasing him. The real question is why did he try to run when they were after him. This is all the drunk drivers fault.

From the back end of last week, you had a lot of people traveling later than usual, as some folks started their Obon holiday travels early. The entire weekend has seen a large increase in traffic as many others do the same.

The police were right to give chase.

The cops were not at fault.

The young girl and two others, (I`m going out on a limb here and suggesting it was perhaps her parents?) had every right to be on the road at that time.

If the guy was drunk or had been drinking, he should not have been driving. If he was speeding, he was obviously breaking the law (again). In both parts, HE is at fault. HE caused an accident, HE was under the influence, HE took a life.

if a chasing car started running dangerously and also endangering the life of other people then surely the police should think about other options too. lets take another example if a criminal man running from the police and go inside a building and make the innocent people hostages now here while arresting the criminal the police will keep the safety of the hostages as a first priority.

No doubts all the problem started here from the driver, why you are drunk while driving you are not only endanger your own life but the life of other people too. Here a poor girl last her life, may her soul rest in peace.

Many countries now the police no longer give chase(just follow) but use dashboard mounted camera images to catch the licence-plate.

And guess who gives you a wake-up call the next morning. Or they use non-lethal stuff like spike traps to puncture all 4 tires set by another police-car ahead.

bookowlsAug. 12, 2012 - 08:48PM JST

The cops were not at fault.

If the guy was drunk or had been drinking, he should not have been driving. If he was speeding, he was obviously breaking the law (again). In both parts, HE is at fault. HE caused an accident, HE was under the influence, HE took a life.

That's like saying that if someone is chasing me on foot, and when I run away I hit some old lady down a flight of stairs, the person that began the chase has no responsibility.

What if it wasn't the cops behind him, rather some yakuza? Would you still think it was the driver's fault?

The simple matter of fact is that it could have avoided if the cops had backed off after reading the plate, then waited for him at his house.

3am? why was a 15 year old out at that time? LOL

This is really sad.

"the pursuing officers were not at fault", how do they figure this? Shouldn't these officers be arrested as well? I am sure they already had the license plate, there were cameras around the city, they could have got the guy down the street by blocking the street by calling ahead by radio. Now you have a 15 year old innocent girl dead. The parents need to go after Hiroki Miura, the officers and the police department with everything they have got. What I also want to know is why don't they name the officers as well in the story? Let all of Japan go after these officers.

Some people here are overlooking the fact that it is hard to prosecute someone for drunk driving if you wait until the next morning.

Just because he ended up killing this girl as a result of the chase does not mean that he may not have killed someone somewhere else along the line. While we don't have his BAC listed in this article, I think it is fair to assume that if he was at the point of panicking and fleeing from the cops to the point of getting in an accident, then he most likely had more than a beer or two a couple hours prior - especially given the time it occurred. LH10 raises a good point: what exactly was this 15 year old doing out on the road at 3am? I'm curious as to what the ages of the other 2 passenger in the vehicle were. Were they her parents? Friends of a close age? What about the driver?

AmidalismAug. 13, 2012 - 11:08AM JST

While we don't have his BAC listed in this article, I think it is fair to assume that if he was at the point of panicking and fleeing from the cops to the point of getting in an accident, then he most likely had more than a beer or two a couple hours prior - especially given the time it occurred.

Unlike where ever you live, Japan is a zero tolerance country. A single beer (and probably a few cups of regular orange juice) before driving would be enough to set off tests and strip you of your license (and a ton of money). If this man happened to make a living off of driving (either he needs to drive to work, or his work means driving), it is easy to see he would panic.

basroil: regarding your example, if you were being chased by cops because you did something illegal (or let's say the owner of a bag you just stole), then the chaser shouldn't be faulted.

brknarmAug. 13, 2012 - 11:45AM JST

The cops were clear to say "suspicion of speeding", that would mean that he didn't do something illegal in front of them, rather was suspected of doing something illegal. Hardly the situation you describe.

Lets also look at it this way, the cops pointed out that it went on for 5km. For even a 10% chance of death from a side collision, we are looking at about 50km/h. That means about 6 minutes after the chase started the car crash occurred. The area there is pretty dense city, so that means the cops were chasing a suspected drunk through a city for six minutes. Hardly an excusable chase.

Very sad news and the girl was unfortunately at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Can imagine the suffering she must have gone through, RIP!

Police should have a protocol for chasing speeding cars if there are other traffic or in congested areas, stop chasing is a key and cut these criminals off at exit points by helicopter pursuit.

Not enough information about the pursuit to deem if the highway patrol were also at fault. Either way, for the guy to try and out run an officer is just plain stupid though, he must have been quite drunk to do this. Most would just take the speeding ticket and try and hide the drunkedness.

Points to consider:

1.) A fifteen year-old in a car at 3:00 am on a weekday? 2.) The driver who was under the influence knew there was zero tolerance for drinking and driving, yet decided to do so anyway? 3.) Tracking a car by air only works if you happen to have an aircraft in the sky at the time. As the pursuit only lasted 5 km, there wouldn't have been enough time to even warm up a helicopter, never mind get it in the air and over to the scene of the chase so the police on the ground could back-off. 4.) 5 km on a national highway would take, what, three minutes to traverse if you were speeding? It's not like the police chased this guy for a half hour. In all likelihood, there hadn't even been enough time for back-up vehicles to intercept before the crash.

@Fadamor

1) Entirely irrelevant in every conceivable way... 2) Yes, that is the basis behind the whole story. What's your point? 3) A helicopter isn't necessary to find someone who owes a ticket. 4) That is a valid point, but realize that it only takes a few seconds to realize that a situation your chase is causing has turned excessively dangerous to the public.

@jumpultimatestars,

Why are you driving around a 15 year old at 3 in the morning?

The point was aimed at those who were trying to put the blame on the strict drinking and driving laws rather than on the person who intentionally ignored them.

The police were pursing someone who appeared to be speeding, but when that person started running, they would naturally figure something more serious was happening. You can't "owe a ticket" until you actually stop and get served one. Someone running from the police is naturally going to get a WHOLE LOT more interest from law enforcement than someone who stops. That whole lot will include air support if available.

It's 3 am. How much traffic is on the highway at that time? Just because the police were chasing him doesn't mean they were right on his bumper. All they needed to do was keep him in sight until support showed up.

Didnt anyone read the commet that it is Obon now and everyone is out and about going back home and then coming back. Unlike weston countries the Japanese only have a few days to spend with familys then they have to go back to work, and it is common for familys to travel at night.

Didnt anyone read the commet that it is Obon now and everyone is out and about going back home and then coming back. Unlike weston countries the Japanese only have a few days to spend with familys then they have to go back to work, and it is common for familys to travel at night.

Point taken. The article never mentioned that the other passengers were family members. Based on the article it seemed she was riding around with friends but given the circumastances you mention, it could easily have been a family drive.