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An 84-year-old man died after he was hit by a bus while crossing a street in Yokohama on Saturday afternoon.
According to police, the incident occurred in Tsurumi Ward at around 4 p.m. Fuji TV reported that Fumio Noguchi had been on his way home from a walk when he was hit by the bus as he crossed the street. He was taken to hospital where he died at around 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
The bus driver, Shigeharu Sekiguchi, 54, has been charged with reckless driving resulting in death.
There is no crossing or lights at the scene of the accident.
None of the 40 passengers on board the bus were injured.
© Japan Today
8 Comments
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gogogo
Sounds like the old guy just stepped out by mistake, if that is the case the arrest seems a little much
gokai_wo_maneku
The guy survived the war, only to be killed by a bus.
Mocheake
No crossing stripes or lights? In a case like this (don't know what the law says), I feel it is incumbent on the pedestrian to give way or wait and make sure it is safe before crossing. It could be he was in the road already and/or the driver was speeding or inattentive. RIP.
lomae
No lights or crossing and it was 7:30pm. It's possible the driver had no idea that anyone was even there.
lucabrasi
@Iomae
4.00pm. But still....
I read somewhere that being a bus-driver is the most stressful job in the world.
What other job forces you to sit down all day (no chance to stretch your legs), be responsible for money (okay, not millions, but anything missing is absolutely your fault), deal with abuse from passengers and be responsible for the lives of people both on and around the bus?
Not saying the older bloke who died was in any way to blame. But, still....
towingtheline
Automatic guilt regardless of the circumstances... This is why (understandably) there are so many 'hit and run' accidents in Japan.
If someone (through ignorance or not paying any attention) walks, runs or rides into the path of your car/truck/bus, why is the driver automatically guilty. That makes no sense what so ever...
If the argument was, "the driver should have been paying attention and should have applied the brakes to avoid hitting the person"... Then why aren't train drivers arrested when someone walks, runs or jumps in front of their train? Or, why isn't the national speed limit 5km on all roads? (because that would be silly wouldn't it)....
In most cases, I would say it's difficult to avoid hitting someone if they just appear out of nowhere in front of you...
Pathetic law. Absolutely pathetic. It ruins someones job / life because someone else decided not to pay attention to the their surroundings...
Steven Fennel
From what I've seen of some of these old people they just wander out into the road and don't even look! It's as if they not aware it even a road. Given his age I'd say this was what case. Poor bus driver, he was just doing his job