6-year-old boy dies after being hit by car in Tochigi

"Kenta Komatsu, 6, who was walking on the sidewalk with his friend around 5 p.m." A 6 year old and his friend? Who the hell was supervising these youngsters?! Is it not against the law to have children of this age running around in public without proper supervision?!

Completely unavoidable.

S

Spidey you never went running around your neighborhood with your friends when you were 5?

"Spidey you never went running around your neighborhood with your friends when you were 5?"

First of all, this is not 35 years ago when most societies were oblivious to certain dangers that societies take for granted today. Well most societies anyway. Secondly, NO. I was not permitted to run around in the street unsupervised until I was much older. My mother always saw to it that there was someone around to keep an eye on us. Not a difficult thing to comprehend considering that there are so many ways to get into trouble both then and especially now.

S

Correction...meant to say, "Completely avoidable."

My bad

He was on the sidewalk. Blame the driver not the parents

@spidey ; i cant imagine myself living under that much supervision or pressure when i was a child.i am glad that i was not born in usa or any western country for just being in the fear of something all the time.think how much i would miss and, now i see children being locked in their houses and given the fear of every stranger man on the street.i am talking about early 90s of Turkey, and it is still the case , we would love to go ojisan kebab or just hang out on the ancient roman places for fun.there was not a bully or money asking bad guy types.i think you are a woman.i like japan being like my country and i want it stay that way not with some local western fobbies.for the six year old, i can show you many news like that from Canada or America if you want my friend.yeah what about the driver?

Spidey Have you ever lived in Tochigi ?

The streets are very narrow. And people tend to drive SPEEDO in my neighborhood. This is 5pm. The Sun is still out. Many children ride their bicycles in the neighborhood.

In their NEIGHBORHOOD. I guarntee the A HOLE doesn`t even live in that neighborhood.

I used to ride my bicycle in my neighborhood. And sometimes I walk to my friends house in MY NEIGHBORHOOD. When I was 5 - 18 years old. WHY CANT THE A HOLE SLOW DOWN ?????

In my Neighborhood in Tochigi. People don`t care. No speed limit. 45km - 65km daijobu. DAIJOBU DES YO !!!!

In a narrow street. In a neighborhood. This is not a major road with stop lights and stop signs.

They speedo in the middle of the working week. They speedo during Golden Week. They speedo Sunday Morning.

I do not know why they just make SPEED BUMPS.

SPEED BUMPS WILL DIVERT THE MANIAC DRIVERS OUT OF SMALL NARROW STREETS. Anyways if the mother was watching her child in the street. They both would have been ran over.

The mother would have died too.

That is what police call WRECKLESS DRIVING

BECAUSE THE DRIVER IS DRIVING WRECKLESS.

I have seen company ( WHITE CARS ) speedo in the my neighborhood. The only people who drive safe are Post Office People. And Express Delivery People. The Farmers, House wives with the big _ss white nissan/honda mini vans, the old farts,and the young farts all drive speedo speedo at the place where i call home.

This is a tragedy and yes, the Keystones are in some way responsible. Why? Because they're super slack. Tough on women driving K cars (hey, it doesn't get any more stress free than hounding a woman in a shopping car) foreigners riding bicycles etc. In other words, they shirk from crime itself and all the other blatant offenders because it's a hassle to deal with... The result is, even more drivers talking on cellphones, watching TV (while driving) and infants standing up with faces pressed near the windscreen.

Mother is buckled up I note because the moron believes she's a 'sabuteee draiba', therefore accidents only happen to others. The biggest bunch of garbage on this planet aka the Japanese police.

RIP and condolences to the family.

I would agree with you posters if the accident happened while there was an adult around. But I have to disagree due to the fact that these kids were on their own. IMHO, kids at this age are far to young to be playing around in the streets. They are completely naive to the dangers around them. Have at me all you will, posters. I won't be changing my opinion any time soon.

BTW...whether I am male or female is completely irrelevant.

S

Not having a go spiey just seeing where you were coming from. Me and my friends would play around our neighborhood all the time and I am glad it was that way. I agree with spudman that the focus should be on the driver and not the parents here. It does not appear that the kids jumped out or anything, and even if they did, how fast do you gotta be going to kill someone while turning at a T-section?

i suppose spidey thinks all kids should be driven to school instead of walking to school??

i think its sad if japan turns the way of some "western" cultures. once you are too far down that slippery slope... then it makes it harder to get back to a better place of safety and respect.

I am assuming Spidey is not in Japan and has no concept of how much more developed 5 and 6 year olds are here in compared to the USA. I too thought it odd to see such young children out and about without supervision when I first came to Japan 16 years ago. But I learned quickly that these kids had a bit of sense and "street smarts". It is not unusual at all to see a 1st grader (or group of) taking the train, bus or traveling "unsupervised". However they are being supervised, by all that see them. That is one of the great things about the society here, people pretty much look out for each other.

Anyone with any brain at all realizes that the average Japanese barely look out for their own family members let alone a stranger's kid.

Well Hoser, I don't know where you live at, but that is not the case in the community I live in, and I have been in Japan a bit longer that 2 weeks....

Once you turn 60, you should have to re-pass your driving test every 3 years. Subsidise it, by all means (Gawd knows they pee tax money away on less worthwhile schemes), but these old farts think they're invulnerable and infallible because they haven't died for a long time.

I did hear that to get your license renewed, you have to attend a lecture by someone important (City office road safety expert or some such gubbins), after which point you get your license re-stamped. You don't have to answer any questions, pass any kind of examination (even an eye check) or even stay awake. Just being there shows you are venerable enough never to have an accident.

The boy was on the pavement, and killed by a speeding car. Nothing to do with a parent. Hope this old fart has nightmares for the rest of his life.

I hate it how JT posters always blame the parents/victims for these things. These kids could have been playing on the footpath outside their houses or walking down to the shop just on the corner for some lollies for all we know - I don't think it's that unreasonable/god awful for 5/6 years olds to be on the street in their neighbourhoods.

Being a parent I find it hard to fathom the idea of my 5 year old daughter walking THESE NARROW JAPANESE STREETS without someone to watch over her where so many drive with reckless abandon. YES! The old man was probably at fault for hitting the young boy but there is also another big YES! to the parents who let their child be in a situation that with "street smarts" was unable to fully understand. And for those of us that DO live in Japan we know all to well how children and adults alike pay little attention to the machines of the road that can take you out in a blink of an eye.

S

The bull's eye is freshly painted.

I am on spideys side. An astute and cautious parent taking kids home would have anticipated the atrocious Japanese driver and not have stood at the curb within firing distance much like myself. Stand 2 meters back and look around like your life depended on it and even more important, your kids life because this is Japan and you have to roll with the punches.

I did hear that to get your license renewed, you have to attend a lecture by someone important

And the geezers fall asleep in class, Wottock, a fair indication of how they'll be driving when they get back on the road.

memyself: Spidey Have you ever lived in Tochigi ? The streets are very narrow

hahaha, the streets are narrow ALL OVER JAPAN, not just in the sticks of Tochigi.

People blame the victims because they need to believe there's a reason it couldn't happen to them. Fate is cruel, and some people just can't accept that.

It doesn't make the driver any less culpable, but having someone to blame makes the tragedy no less tragic.

I prefer a society where children can walk the streets without being unduly worried for them. I think it would be a real shame to have kids driven every where thus putting more mom trucks on the road and making them even more dangerous. In some other societies children would walk to school years ago but now not. I think its good that Japan hasn't gone that far as i think it teaches kids a whole host of things such as respect culture and keeps them fit that i don't see in other cultures. If Japan did change to be like some other cultures in that respect i think it would be another one of the good points that Japan is loosing (sometimes without realizing - as they themselves are not always too aware of other cultures).

Here I am 77+ yrs of age. Have never had an automotive like accident of where I was in the wrong in my 61 yrs of driving & riding m/cs.

My home is part of a town on the side of a mountain so only short roads, most are not with sidewalks. Kids play on the paved roads, people walk their dogs on the same & others are out just for the walk on the same while some are taking up bicycleing to save on cost of fuel.

Yet in driving or riding I am on my toes & never get out of 2nd gear in most cases-----all for the safety of others.

After all the safety of others is extremely important. When I first started rolling out my bikes & riding them (in '78) kids would raise their hands to cover their ears from the exhaust noise of other m/cs. They do not now as they know my m/cs are often quiter then most cars & YES they are hot trotting sportbikes, but there is not gain in modifying the exhaust system for 100 to 220kph is easy to gain if one wants, on the Cdn Rockie Mountain roads though against the law.

That reckless idiot driver drove ONTO THE SIDEWALK thus he is 100% at fault and it is NOT the fault of the child or the parents!