Car hits preschool children, injuring two in Nishinomiya

Tragic. I hope all the children recover quickly and completely.

Again? Has this been happening in the past but not being reported? Or has this been recently happening more?

anyone who's driven on Japanese roads or even been a pedestrian on Japanese roads will know how awful Japanese drivers are. Among the worlds worst, hands down.

Vince Black - anyone who's driven on Japanese roads or even been a pedestrian on Japanese roads will know how awful Japanese drivers are. Among the worlds worst, hands down.

Seconded! It’s always amusing watching a Japanese driver reverse a car. They put the car into reverse and switch their brain off - the little part of the brain that was working.

However, a bad driver is not only judged by ability. They are also judged by how well they comply with road rules and how courteous they are to other drivers. Double fail there!

in this case, the driver suddenly decided to do a u-turn. I have no doubt it was an illegal turn and she showed no care of pedestrians or other drivers.

Was outside a convene just this morning, at the bottom of a hill many bikes zooming down the hill. Fair enough, when suddenly an old man suddenly turns into the convene!

Six bike rides came to greif, two head first into the car, the other four collateral. The old man jumped out and started yelling at the men on the ground. Got back into his car reversed over two bikes and left...still yelling.

Thats the mind set. I always wear a helmet you never know or how these things happen no matter how much care you take. That's at 7.30 in the morning. I left no need for a foreigner to distract the police from their job. It's abhorrent people's reckless actions.

May be authorities need to consider more pedestrian only areas . . . .

May be authorities need to consider more pedestrian only areas . . . .

Of course they should, as well as traffic calming devices like speed bumps and turnabouts. Why anyone would downvote such an idea is beyond me. I often think that no country privileges the rights of drivers more than Japan. While understandable in inaka, in insanely crowded, overcrowded urban areas it's completely absurd.

Completely agree with jcapan – speed bumps will slow drivers right down! In Mexico there are speed bumps even in the middle of a highway where there are intersections, merges and such. Of course, they are located in rural neighbourhoods and local roads, too. Who cares if you have to slow down a little if it's going to save people from getting injured by recklessness. Saving lives goes without saying. Get on it Japan!

zichi  

This location has wide sidewalks.

Maybe by Japan standards these are wide sidewalks But not so. Japan sidewalks are very narrow compared to sidewalks in the USA and many other countries. Now these being narrow sidewalks still is no reason for Rieko Ueda, 69 to drive into the children. Time for her to start taking the Train / Bus to where ever she needs to go.

jcapan,

top comments.......I agree entirely with you.

@Vince Black I dont think they are the worst, considering how awful driving in asia is in general, but the Japanese have no sense of teamwork or unity in any part of their society, which is especially important on the road.

Everyone is "me, me, me" and do what they want without thinking and that's when these accidents occur.

another one ?

Just another shocking statistic of Japan's fastest growing criminal demographic.

Gladly the young were not sacrificed at the convenience of the aged in this case.

Imagine that! This AGAIN! The scary part about this is, with the super aging population, things will only get worse before they get better.

Old people in Jpan are a scourge on society... really getting out of hand all this...something needs to be done to stop these selfish idiots driving.

The worst drivers in the world are in Japan without a doubt

Why is this "news"

Do you know how many people are killed by drivers everyday? Do you know which age group does the most? This is not new.

Japan doesn't rank well at this.

Don’t get why anyone would be surprise there would be another accident. Japan has more than 100 million people and this site release news from all around Japan. It would be weird if there isn’t any of these car accidents. Whenever people heard kids get injured they get riled up. But truth is, this is nothing new. Every nation has it. To actually call Japan the worst drivers only means you haven’t travel a lot abroad or read much of the outside world news. You guys just haven’t seen yet what USA and China drivers are capable of when you go on vacation there.

Perhaps the Japanese drivers (excluding Taxis) are the best, and it's you, who not knowing the local Driving rules here properly, get into trouble, or find it difficult to understand why they behave the way they do. If every Traffic accident in the UK per day was shown on TV you'd probably have a daily TV channel dedicated to it, but here in Japan... such accidents made the infrequent headline news.

In China, Drivers don't care about pedestrians - its your fault if you're in their way... at least Pedestrians there, know that. In the US, I didn't find it so bad, you just got to be wary - especially in the Cities - but that's pretty much the same everywhere.

Back on topic,

In this case, doing a right hand turn, and crashing into Kids, to me, either suggests she was having a bad temper fit (or a Mental flip) and did it on purpose at that time, or she can't see properly. She's going to need closer examination. (Notice that there are no black tyre marks in the road, so a sudden sharp highspeed turn was not the case in this situation)

The Parents of those Kids receiving a call telling them of accident must have been really upset - I know I would have been. Though I have to wonder, were these Kids being pushed in one of those pre-schooler's trolley's or walked in pairs down the sidewalk. Why weren't their carers watching out for potential issues at such entrances ? Perhaps understaffed ?

Today whilst doing 10 km over the speed limit I had to pull out because of an obstruction on the left-the car behind me began to speed up so that I would be blocked in!

Unfortunately, that is the mindset of some drivers in Japan which causes needless accidents.

Yet another old person driving

Yet another old person driving

Not quite. She was only 69.

JoeintokyoJune 13  09:21 pm JST

The worst drivers in the world are in Japan without a doubt

I would like to nominate China.

@joeintokyo

Not really. I've seen much worse. Your travel experience is obviously very limited. Get out more...see the world.

Cam to say the same thing. I'm guess the downvotes are from the same type of people that haven't really experienced much else. Japan is far from the worst in the world. I personally remember Koreans driving on the sidewalk to get past traffic and one look at Russian dash cameras on Youtube will tell you Japan isn't even a runner up.

Yet another old person driving

Not quite. She was only 69.

69 is old. Another elderly driver causes an accident and this time kids are hurt.

I'm curious like the above poster asked. Are accidents being reported more frequently these days? Because it seems that you can't read/see the news without an accident between vehicles and pedestrians being reported on without a day going by.

If so, is this a case of selective news sharing to push the government to implement stricter driving guidelines for the elderly?

Extanker 69 is old? How about all the accidents caused by teens and 20s? Teens and early 20s can’t even rent cars in the U.S. often because of the stats. on them. But they don’t even get in the news here. Very suspicious. The media is part of a project to get seniors to give up their driving licenses.

Japan is a very conservative country. Wants retirees to dutifully sit at home with grandchildren and die off.

Speed. Telepathic thinking? I was thinking so at the same time this morning when I made my comment. Yeah, media project to go after seniors. Japan hates old people. And this will, of course, only get worse.

'm curious like the above poster asked. Are accidents being reported more frequently these days? Because it seems that you can't read/see the news without an accident between vehicles and pedestrians being reported on without a day going by.

Yes! They are being reported more than in the past. Accidents have been increasing as well, and the media is playing their part in the story.

Many long time residents can probably back this up here, but when there are incidents that affect society, in general, and not specifically, the media will tend to ramp up the number of stories that are related to the issue and next you will start reading about either the police or politicians, making new laws and regulations regarding said issue.

Couple of examples, drunk driving accidents, been happening since forever, but there were a few rather tragic ones that caught the attention of the media, and long story short, fines and jail sentences increased by a lot, in fact doubled. Go back further, Yakuza were running rampant, and their activities spilled over to the "regular" folks, including a drive by shooting, where the wrong person, a teenager in this case, who had nothing to do with the Yakuza, got shot and killed.

The cops, after years of playing look the other way games, came down hard, and have not lifted their foot off the peddle

There are others as well, and those two examples are just really, really, short stories of much longer books!

@memoryfix

Extanker 69 is old?

First, yes, 69 is old. The common accepted age throughout the world for the term 'elderly' to be applied to is 65. Don't like it? Go complain to the World Health Organization, that's where I got the info.

How about all the accidents caused by teens and 20s? Teens and early 20s can’t even rent cars in the U.S. often because of the stats. on them. But they don’t even get in the news here.

Second, once again, we *are not talking about an accident caused by a young driver. This particular article is specifically talking about an accident where an elderly driver ran over a group of little kids, so the problem that needs to be addressed here, in this particular instance is elderly drivers. Why is that so hard to understand? It's not a conspiracy against the elderly, they are actually causing a large number of traffic accidents*!

But instead, whenever someone points out that there needs to be more stringent rules put in place for elderly drivers, someone always chimes up 'oh but the young drivers are worse!'. Yay, thats great! Now how about contributing something constructive to help with the problem at hand, which again, is elderly drivers.

When JT publishes an article about young drivers (and they do, despite what some people claim) then you can complain about them. And in the comments, you won't hear me complain 'But what about elderly drivers, they're dangerous too!' because it's not the subject at hand.

Extanker. I don’t understand what you mean by “not the subject at hand”. What do I have to do? Express my (obvious) sorrow about these kids who were hit before I can write my idea?

I’m not going to let that take me away from my belief there’s a hit job on old drivers. And I almost never see articles about other accidents unless they’re runaway maniacs.

Extanker. I don’t understand what you mean by “not the subject at hand”.

It means exactly what I explained in so much detail. This has nothing to do with young drivers. Do you know why you don't see as many articles about young drivers? Because their stupidity mostly only results in their own deaths while lately elderly drivers are taking out innocent bystanders by the score.

So many people act like it is some 'hit job' on elderly drivers, when it is just stating facts, that a huge percentage of elderly drivers are a hazard. Whether or not younger drivers are dangerous is 100% irrelevant to the discussion.

Now they're taking out little kids but you're worried about the media putting out a 'hit job' on old people. It's ridiculous.

Seems in the above comments the blame is bouncing all over the place :

extanker stated that a huge percentage of elderly drivers are a hazard....

others stated that 69 is old...

Well depending on how a person takes care of their health 69 is not old people live longer now a days and are in better health then decades ago thanks to medical research.

Only the women driving knows the real cause for the accident.

Any person who operates a motor vehicle is a hazard and can be involved in an accident at anytime, that's why it's called an accident. Now when a person operating a motor vehicle is distracted by a talking on a cell phone, texting, e-mailing, etc etc etc Now those drivers are a danger and I would rather be driven around by an elderly person who is focused on driving then a young person who is talking on a cell phone, texting, e-mailing, etc etc etc ...........