Driver arrested after elderly woman dragged by van for 2 km in Tokyo

Wow, brutal.

Dear god... this is just horrible. That poor old lady... same age as my mother. I can't get this out of my head...

It's possible this could have happened, he is a company employee probably driving the company van and not paying attention, which does not mean he is accused but how many times have you seen the old women who could barely walk hunched folded over crossing the street if one drive up it is very hard to see them. Still, this is no excuse but it is possible because I have seen it happen many times where there's three lanes and a guy in a wheel chair crossing the street if you are looking from left to right the car on the far left doesn't see the guy in the wheel chair and when the lights change it just so happens that guy is in front of him and he hits the guy. I have seen it many times. Its possible but still no excuse.

What a horrible end to a long life.

Horrific incident.

It is entirely possible that the driver is telling the truth and was not aware that he had hit and was dragging a pedestrian.

If he was driving a K car or other small vehicle I would be less inclined to believe so.

To be aware and yet continue driving would not only be unusually cruel but would potentially incure an even larger penalty.

if he truly didn’t see or hear anything, then he has eyesight problem plus hearing problems if he can’t hear the noise of the van dragging something along

Sorry, I do not believe him. I am a driver as probably most here are, if I run over a small pot hole I know about it, and did no one else see what was happening? If I were to hit a pedestrian and drag them 3km I would be stopped by other drivers immediately.

It's sad the lady died this way. However, it's possible he really didn't know he hit her. Who in their right mind would run somebody over and continue driving with the body attached to their car for 10 minutes? What kind of car was it? It's possible he fell asleep at the wheel, hit her, was awoken by the sudden jolt and kept on driving. The accident is still probably his fault, tho.

That funny, I don’t REMEMBER running anyone over…body ?, WHAT body ?

Death by road rash is very rare. It is possible the old lady had a pre-existing condition that expedited her demise, or she may have been dead on the road already. In the case of the latter, the driver should be released immediately. Let's just hope the police actually do their jobs and investigate how the old lady actually died. A coroner's report would help, as would video footage from surveillance cameras. Please drive safety everyone.

The suspect's van allegedly struck Ushikusa at around 3:40 p.m. Tuesday and dragged her for roughly 10 minutes before a police officer stopped the vehicle and took the driver into custody, police said.

Something is seriously wrong with the timeline here, if the cop took the driver into custody first!