crime

4-year-old boy dies after being hit by car; driver arrested

14 Comments

Police in Konosu, Saitama Prefecture, said Sunday they have arrested the 22-year-old driver of a car that hit and killed a 4-year-old boy in a parking lot.

According to police, the incident occurred at around 6:50 p.m. Saturday in the car park outside an apartment block. NTV reported that the child, Mikihiro Sekizuka, was with his mother when he walked ahead of her and was hit by the car driven by company employee Yuki Hasegawa. Police said Hasegawa was turning left into the parking lot when he hit the boy.

The boy sustained head injuries and was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Police said Hasegawa, who said he didn't notice the boy, has been charged with reckless driving resulting in death.

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14 Comments
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Regardless if the guy was driving without due care, a parent should be holding the hand of a small child in a parking lot. Strangers aren't going to be thinking about a child's safety, that's the parents job.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Why isn't the parent being charged with "reckless parenting resulting in death"? I see small children running ahead of their parents in parking lots on almost a daily basis. Of course mom will lightly shout out ダメ~ in a tone of voice that holds no authority whatsoever and continue to walk behind the child at a leisurely pace without making any real effort to stop them.

The driver was turning into the parking lot so he couldn't have been going all that fast. Now he has to live with this child's death and whatever fine/sentence they slap him with just because of an incompetent parent.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

It's a safe assumption that little Mikihiro was hidden beneath the line of bonnets/hoods of reverse-parked cars as the young man negotiated his left turn in the dark.

The mother has been punished enough for her carelessness. Hasegawa's crime may just be (though we don't know the details) that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, in unavoidable circumstances.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Sorry,but the mother is partially responsible here for letting a child that young just run off.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Stupid mother! This guy get arrested for bad parenting, they need to teach at drivers class to be on the lookout for mothers with little care for their children's safety!

3 ( +5 / -2 )

So what I never read about in such incidents are the sentencing of the drive. Since it is clearly the fault of Japanese parents for never holding the hand of their child when outdoors and in obviously dangerous places such as parking lots, do the drivers "get off" with a warning such as: "sorry for your bad luck, but please try to watch out for careless parenting?" For once I would like to read about the outcome so I dont "run" if this exact incident happens to me.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

smithinjapan. I'll admit that you make good points in some of your other comments, but bringing your "Saitama again" argument here is ridiculous. This isn't a case of someone going out and killing their children/parent like the other articles in the crime section. It's not like this guy went out of his way to run down a child in the parking lot of his apartment complex with some vendetta. You even admitted it in your first comment.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Sheesh... Saitama AGAIN!

10000yen bet still stands. I didn't know that ALL traffic accidents occurred in Saitama. Also did you happen to know that not all crime that happened in Japan is reported on this website? If the media controls your opinions, best to stay indoors.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Roosterman77 Sounds like you quick to point a finger at Amidalism for stating the truth. Yes, the child lost his life due to being hit by a driver who may not have seen him. The most fault is with the mother who let her 4 year old child walk ahead of her in the parking lot. She is aware of the dangers for herself in the parking lot, so why wouldn't she think the same for her child??????? I had a friend that let her 2 year old son run through a parking area as we walked back to her car one day, and I nicely stated, "If you want your son to live to see 3, you need to hold his hand." She felt I insulted her for telling her that. Needless to say, we no longer friends.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Antonio575. How did Amid... state the truth. I didn't blame the driver. Too often we make assumptions about whose fault it was without knowing the details. Reread the story: We don't know if there were other cars around or how fast the car turned into the car park, how well lit the area was. Therefore, it's a bit unfair to blame the mother who has just lost her son. Many posts seem to lack empathy. Anyway, some parents do need to take better care of their children... not just in Japan but around the world. Some posts just use stories like this to vent any anger they have against Japan. I call it 'homesickness'... been there done that.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Amidalism. Sounds like you were there. Therefore, you should go to the police and tell them what happened. Actually, why don't you go and tell the mother about what you think, I'm sure she'll appreciate it. The assumptions that you made in your post are insulting to a parent who lost their child. This story is very sad and makes me think about my own children. To the little boy RIP.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

DaDude: "10000yen bet still stands."

Do you want to know what's funny? EVERY time you mention the 10,000 yen bet, which you can keep by the way, you're going to be mentioning it on... wait for it... Saitama crime threads! Which so far this year means two or three times a day.

I am fully aware that not all accidents happen in Saitama, and clearly mentioned that in my post. And stop being silly suggesting the media controls my 'opinions' (and by the way, you are confusing opinion with fact! As in, it's a fact Saitama has featured in the crime section for eight incidents in the five days this year. Saitama is pretty is an opinion). And of COURSE I know that not all crime is reported on this and other news sites; nor is all good news. It's a fact that the more sensational news tends to make the headlines in order to sell papers/get hits on online sites. Hence, Saitama is doing a sensational job so far this year in making the headlines through crime. You simply canNOT deny that fact.

Why does the fact that people mention it bother you more than the fact that there are so many crimes there being reported? Shouldn't the crimes bother you more?

gogogo: "Stupid mother! This guy get arrested for bad parenting, they need to teach at drivers class to be on the lookout for mothers with little care for their children's safety!"

Your statement seems to contain some contradictions. If this is the fault of the 'stupid' mother, why do they need to teach this kind of situation at driver's ed. classes? I agree the mom was a bit negligent to let her kid run off, but we don't know if the driver was negligent or not when pulling in. He says he didn't see the kid, and I kind of believe him, but he also could have sped into the turn and not been paying the most careful of attention. People should ALWAYS be careful in parking lots and near driveways. Often you can't see cars or bikes that are about to back out because they are behind a bigger vehicle, and the same goes with kids darting about.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Accidents are always preventable. Be sure to drive very slowly and deliberately if you cannot see your surroundings, as this man clearly could not.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Sheesh... Saitama AGAIN! At least in this case it's the kind of accident/death that happens anywhere, and it doesn't sound like it was really all the driver's fault, if at all. There's a HUGE parking lot at the convenience store just outside my apartment and a lot of cars and trucks park on it coming off the highway (to grab food, eat, snooze, etc.), so that when I walk there either passing through or going to the store myself there are many occasions on which I'm almost hit because views of people walking (there's no sidewalk, as usual) are blocked by other cars. And I'm very careful. It's entirely possible, since the boy had walked ahead of this mother, that Hasegawa couldn't see him when he pulled in. In any case, RIP to the little boy.

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

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