crime

19-year-old girl killed in hit-and-run

20 Comments

A 19-year-old girl was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Higashi-Osaka City on Saturday morning.

A passerby called 110 at around 12:20 a.m. and said a girl was lying on the road, Sankei Shimbun reported. The girl, Maiko Kubo, who was a university student, was taken to hospital where she died at around 5 a.m. due to extensive injuries, police said.

Police said they are examining street surveillance camera footage to try and identify the vehicle that hit her.

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20 Comments
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Hitting someone and leaving should be murder, not manslaughter

Ummm, how does that make sense. These are both terms that have definition, and hit and run doesn't fit into murder. Now, you could maybe argue that it should be punished the same as murder, but you're proposing redefining the term murder, and it's underlying tenets.

11 ( +12 / -1 )

She was a 19 year old woman! Give her that much respect in her death!

Yes, But she is still underage here in Japan

7 ( +10 / -3 )

Hitting someone and leaving should be murder, not manslaughter

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Hit and run accidents seem to be more common than in the West. Could be because Japan has a shame culture, not a guilt culture. There is a "If nobody knows I did it, it didn't happen" mentality here.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

RIP

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I hope they track down the coward who left the scene.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

@strngerland. So in your thinking, if i push you over a cliff, i didn't murder you, only pushed you? 

A deliberate push would be murder if the push resulted in death.

If the driver of the car deliberately hit the girl, that could in fact be murder.

If you accidentally bumped into strangerland, resulting in him stumbling and falling over a cliff to his death, that would not be murder. It's really all about intent. There are also varying degrees, but very basically speaking, an accident is not murder.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

One of my Japanese students told me that when he was a high school student in Osaka that he had been hit by a car. He was hit by the car and went flying over the top of the car and landed behind it on the street and the car sped away and never stopped. The hit and run driver was never found.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Cue "I didn't think I hit anything" or "I felt something bump the car but I didn't stop, sorry"

2 ( +2 / -0 )

After midnight, perhaps drunk?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Question is also "who was drunk ?"

When living in Japan, I was once confronted to a strange situation : a drunk old man was trying to sleep on a narrow road which I knew cars could drive through. He was going to face at least obvious potential heavy injuries if doing so because of absence of lighting on the part of road he was. He was not letting me help him so I had to decide to stay with him for a while...2 or 3 Japanese saw the situation but did not try to help in any way while I was struggling whith my limited Japanese to reason the drunk guy...no one cared in fact.

1/2h later a family member eventually came to take him.

So careful to know what the context was before any judgement.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@theFu. I agree. @strngerland. So in your thinking, if i push you over a cliff, i didn't murder you, only pushed you? If the driver stopped, they could given first response medical attention while calling and ambulance and making sure another car didn't run over the poor girl. So i think it is murder.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@strngerland. So in your thinking, if i push you over a cliff, i didn't murder you, only pushed you?

It depends on whether you intended for me to die or not. Intent is the line between murder and manslaughter. If you were just monkeying around and pushed me, and I fell off the cliff, it would be manslaughter due to the negligence, but not murder due to the lac of intent. If you meant for me to die, it would be murder.

Hit and runs are usually accidents, and therefore manslaughter and not murder. If they are on purpose, that's when it becomes murder (or often vehicular homicide).

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Long time ago, I was hit by a car but I had no recollection about the incident because I suddenly found myself waking up in a hospital bed with injuries not knowing what happened to me.

They told me that "it was an automobile accident." I could not remember anything, so I asked "was it my fault?" What they told me surprised me: "You were hit while walking on a street." It took a while till I finally realized that I was actually walking on a street getting back to my parked car. But there was and still is total blank in my head about time between my walking and being in a hospital.

I was lucky that a guy who hit me stopped and called ambulance. Every time I read an article about hit-and-run, I remember my accident.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

She was hit just after midnight on Friday night, so 12.30 am Saturday morning. She is dead, so regardless of what we might speculate here, the police will need to try and work out the exact circumstances leading to this tragic end.

Many drivers choose to drive away to wait until any alcohol content has gone, because the penalties are so severe.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@socrates Long time ago, I was hit by a car but I had no recollection about the incident because I suddenly found myself waking up in a hospital bed with injuries not knowing what happened to me.

Same happened to me - I later learned driver deliberately stalked hit assaulted me and drove away - in front of witnesses - Meguro police didn't detain him buried all evidence, I have been fighting in courts for justice ever since.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

19-year-old girl killed in hit-and-run

She was a 19 year old woman! Give her that much respect in her death!

I highly doubt any 19 year old female likes being referred to as a "girl". And dont pop up with the argument, "She is still underage here in Japan"

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Japanese drivers do not stop for pedestrians. This is a daily problem that has not been sufficiently addressed either by the police or the public. Drivers do not seem to even understand that they must stop for pedestrians.

There can only be one way this unfortunate young woman was hit. She was crossing the street and the driver did not stop for her.

I hope they catch this creepy hit and run driver.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Regarding the hit and run.

I might be wrong but I think no matter what happened it’s always the driver’s fault so that is probably the reason why everyone is running away.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

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