Police in Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture, said Sunday they have arrested a 60-year-old tour bus operator over the hit-and-run death of a six-year-old boy.
According to police, the incident occurred at around 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The boy, Riku Asada, was crossing the street at an intersection when he was hit by the bus driven by Kunio Adachi, Sankei Shimbun reported.
The boy was taken to hospital but died shortly after arrival, police said.
After the bus hit Asada, it kept going before returning to the scene several minutes later. Adachi was quoted by police as saying he felt a bump and thought he might have hit something but did not realize he had hit anyone. He said he stopped the bus and returned to the scene after he heard a car behind him sounding its horn.
Police said Adachi has been charged with reckless driving resulting in death.
© Japan Today
14 Comments
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SenseNotSoCommon
Death-trap intersections strike again.
With the rising age of drivers, can we have a safe period in every signal phase when the lights are red for all motor traffic.
6 year-old pedestrians shouldn't have to compete with buses for real estate.
texpudlian
These intersections are death traps for little kids.
clueless
Put cameras on all intersections. The fines will more than pay for the installation costs.
DaDude
That's always the excuse. Even if he hit something and didn't know what it was, he would have naturally gotten out and inspected if bus drivers are supposed to be safety first.
sensei258
He stopped the bus and returned to the scene when he realized there was no way he was getting away with it.
Wc626
Good point. Safest roads? Japan? All is see are narrow death traps and the craziest intersection which do not feature proper Right Angles.
jonobugs
60 years old is not too old to be driving, but it's definitely old enough to know better than to keep driving after you hit something regardless of what you 'thought' you might have hit. There are only a few things that could have been in the middle of an intersection. Another vehicle, a person or an animal. What did he 'think' the bump was (assuming he really didn't know?). I don't accept potholes, etc since he was a tour bus driver so he would well know the route.
TheGodfather
RIP Riku-kun!! :-(
Alistair Carnell
Japan aims for world's safest roads by 2020
What, with an ageing population mowing down the country's future on a near daily basis ?
Commodore Shmidlap (Retired)
When guilt and the realization he wasn't going to get away with it did a number on him and he decided to face the music.
Strategist
Such cowardisme, you accidentally hit and killed someone, man up and hand yourself in, it's only right as you've taken a life, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
JeffLee
Who had the red light and who had the green light?
rainyday
Very sad. The news these days seems to be a constant drumbeat of stories about children or young adults being killed by elderly drivers.
Hopefully driverless car technology will be advanced enough by the time the greying population really explodes a couple decades from now to prevent the roads from being in an almost non-stop state of accidents happening.
sado001
They shouldn't let elderly people drive buses to prevent accidents such as this.. Seriously, he should had seen the boy crossing from a far..