Police in Narita City, Chiba Prefecture, said Monday they have arrested a 64-year-old man on suspicion of dangerous driving resulting in death after the car he was driving collided head-on with a minivan. A 44-year-old woman was thrown out of the minivan by the impact and died later.
According to police, the incident occurred at around 5 p.m. Sunday, Fuji TV reported. Police said that according to witness reports, Kazuo Ishii, a construction company employee, was driving erratically and his car crossed over the center line into the path of the oncoming minivan which was carrying six people, including four children aged between 4 and 9.
The victim, Maiko Hashimoto, was sitting in the minivan’s back passenger seat. She was thrown out of the vehicle and suffered severe head injuries. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead. The other five passengers sustained light injuries. Two of the children were Hashimoto’s and the other three passengers were family friends.
Police said Ishii was given a breathalyzer test which revealed an alcohol content above the legal limit. Police quoted Ishii as saying he had been drinking alcohol at home and that he had gone out to do some shopping.
© Japan Today
12 Comments
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sir_bentley28
So there are 2 lessons to learn here:
Don't drink and drive! (Friends don't let friends drive drunk!)
Seatbelts saves lives! (Click it or you get a ticket!) (Crash test dummies)Being a kid in the 80s and 90s I paid attention to those PSAs.
I don't know WHY Japanese people think "If I'm sitting behind the front passenger or driver seat, I'll be fine if there were an accident! I don't need seat belts!" I showed my son a video of what would happen if you don't wear seatbelts in an accident (with dummies, of course) and to this day, he knows that our cars would not move until we hear that click from his seatbelt. I am very proud to say he is NOT one of those kids you see moving about freely in an moving car. I honestly think police need to crack down HARD on non seatbelt wearers. I've seen TOO MANY crashes with gruesome endings because of no seatbelts.
kaimycahl
One thing we all know for sure this idiot can't use the excuse to get out of trouble by saying he was drunk!!!
gaijintraveller
That is what I thought, too. I expect, insist rear passengers in my car wear the seat belt. However, I noticed this was a minivan with six people in it. It is quite possible that there were not enough seat belts to go round.
Yubaru
Now I wonder when is the last time you renewed your license? Since 2008 wearing the seat belt in the back seat has been required by law, so either you missed something during the lecture, or the person giving the lecture gave you false information.
More than likely you misunderstood this;
Which is from back in April of 2008
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/04/05/national/back-seat-riders-to-be-bound-by-seat-belt-law/
commanteer
Why is his age relevant? He was a drunk driver, yet the headline omits that and cites his age instead - as though that is the significant factor.
Jonathan Prin
She would not have died if seatbelt was one, fact (no other passenger badly injured).
I require my kids to put seatbelt on before starting to drive. Anyway it is the law where I live.
Another dead woman sadly.
The driver at fault but if he hadn't been drinking, it would not have changed the consequence. Root cause can be different. No one should die that way and bad drivers should be much more punished.
RIP
Do the hustle
It seems a little odd that she was thrown out of the back seat, but all others in the car only received minor injuries. Not wearing a seat belt perhaps? Either way, the other driver had been drinking and should not have been on the road.
3RENSHO
"...and that he had gone out to do some shopping."
Probably, to buy more alcohol...
Mickelicious
RIP, Hashimoto-san.
The last time I renewed my driving licence, the safety lecturer told us all - with a shrug - that rear seatbelts were only needed on the expressway. Stupid.
garypen
He's not a former government bigwig, so, hopefully, he'll be punished by the courts properly for vehicular homicide.
Also, it demonstrates the importance of wearing a seatbelt even in the rear seats. I'm guilty myself of not buckling up when sitting in the back. I think I will be changing my behavior in that regard.
Ramzel
His stupidity cost someone their life. Don’t drink if you’re going to go driving later on...