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Police in Koshigaya City, Saitama Prefecture, have arrested a 42-year-old truck driver after his vehicle hit a 9-year-old boy riding a bicycle on Wednesday afternoon. The boy remained in a coma on Thursday, Fuji TV reported.
According to police, the incident occurred at around 1:40 p.m. at a T-junction. The truck knocked the boy off his bicycle, leaving him with severe head injuries.
The driver, Mitsushi Hasegawa, called police immediately after the incident. Police said he has been charged with negligent driving resulting in injury. He was quoted as saying, "I wasn’t paying attention because it’s a street that normally doesn’t have many people walking or riding bikes along it."
There are no traffic lights at the T-junction.
© Japan Today
10 Comments
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Strangerland
his parents are responsible for the severity of his injuries by not following the law and making him wear a helmet!
Where does it say he wasn't wearing a helmet?
Strangerland
Where does it sy he wasn't wearing a helmet?
Strangerland
You realize helmets aren't these magical things that protect heads against everything up to being hit with nuclear missiles, right? That they actually can and do break, and that there is a limit to what they can protect against? Does it say in the article how big the truck was? No. Will a helmet protect against a blow from a large truck with a high impetus? No.
And yet, you've declared that a helmet would have saved this child, without even knowing whether the child was wearing a helmet.
Monozuki
Of course, the truck driver is to be blamed. But yes, if the 9-year-old boy had been helmeted, he wouldn't fall into coma by some chance. Hope the boy would somehow be able to come around one way or the other.
smithinjapan
Strangerland: "Where does it sy he wasn't wearing a helmet?"
Right. It's like a post where victims of a car accident fly through the windshield and you asking where it says they weren't wearing a seatbelt.
smithinjapan
Perfect example of how a helmet could have saved him from the severity of the injuries. But some on here even would say "hairstyle is more important", and convenience trumps safety. Make it law. Also, T-junctions need some kind of lights or else better enforcement, and while the guy was good to quickly call the police, not paying attention because there's "normally not much traffic" deserves the negligence charge he's getting. I pray the child pulls through.
Disillusioned
"The truck knocked the boy off his bicycle, leaving him with severe head injuries."
I'm not defending the truck driver at all coz ! know that most of them are reckless, inconsiderate donkey's butts! However, at nine years old this kid should have been wearing a flipping helmet! It's the law! From June 2006 all children under 13 years old are required to wear bicycle helmets. Not that anybody would know! I have no doubt that, if this kid was wearing a helmet he would be sitting in his hospital bed nursing his superficial wounds and watching Unpanman, but instead, he is now in a coma with severe head injuries. Yeah, the truck driver may very well be responsible for the accident, but his parents are responsible for the severity of his injuries by not following the law and making him wear a helmet!
Alex Einz
Death sentence to the driver as deterrent please!