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A 60-year-old man was arrested for hitting a 68-year-old man with his car on Wednesday after a man in a car behind called police and followed the suspect for about two kilometers.
Shunichi Furukawa, a construction worker and resident of Higashi Osaka City, was arrested for allegedly hitting the 68-year-old man on his bicycle at an intersection in the city just after 11 a.m. and failing to stop at the scene. A man in a car behind saw the incident and called police, continuing to talk to them as he followed the car in front.
The man saw Furukawa get out of his car about two kilometers away and run away, taking off his red pullover in the process. Officers arrived at the scene and were able to arrest Furukawa not far away. Police later said the 68-year-old man was not seriously injured by the impact.
© News reports
25 Comments
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Angelo
Everyone is working for the police in Japan. Good job japanese education!
Newsman
One would like to assume that the hero of this story was not arrested on charges of using a cell phone while driving!
my2sense
a lot of older guys here are already drinking beers by noon, at least in construction. A random guy grows a set and pulls the good samiritan act... hardly news, but rare here... high five dude...
kinniku
Newsman,
He would not be arrested, just fined.
DaDude
Ok, 60 years old, red sweater......He might have been drunk coming home from his Kanreki party
keika1628
Plus + 1 Newsman
Tahoochi
Newsman: I was thinking the same thing! Good for him (the caller) though, keeping a level head... I'm assuming he saw other people rush to the injured man for assistance before he started following the perp.
Moondog
I don't know about Japan law but in at least some U.S. states it's not illegal to drive while talking to police or other emergency services.
thepro
Friend of mine got hit by a car the other day, and the scumbag just drove off. Happens way too much in this country.
goddog
thepro: I got hit and knocked out last summer and am still dealing with the paperwork. No witnesses. Sucks. After I came to, a bunch of people ran over asking if I was daijoubu, while my head gushed blood. But one guy did help me get up. He was American. I am glad they caught the red riding hood perp.
dolphingirl
Good on this good Samaritan! Hope he checked that the man on the bike was alright first, though.
noirgaijin
I should assume that the perp had a few drinks in him since he put such effort into discarding his pullover while escaping the scene.
bushlover
I wish more people would do this.
S7ro9kGm3aQ
That would have made a great punchline to the story!
okasurferdude
what a narc
nandakandamanda
So, the guy who fell off his bike was not seriously injured. What, cuts an scrapes, then?
Typical off-the-wall story. I love it!
bdiego
Driving while calling 911 is usually an explicit exemption under the law. It is where I live.
On a side note, we know the driver was not a foreigner because they would have definitely emphasized this if he were.
Jbizzle
A good samuraitan!!
sharky1
Good on the dude that followed him...For those who may be interested, the emergency number in Japan is 119. They wanted to be different here...
kyoken
Japanese read from left to right, that might explain the difference to US.
kyoken
correction: ... right to left ...
Fadamor
@Jbizzle: Nice pun!
Kudos to the pursuing driver for getting involved. Too often, people can't seem to be bothered to get involved - and this isn't just a Japanese problem. It's a problem worldwide.
lostrune2
Newsman,
It's OK to use the cellphone while driving as long as it's hands-free (bluetooth or on speaker).
Fadamor
They're probaly going to change that. Studies are starting to show that even hands-free devices still take enough attention away from driving that the accident rate increased.
oldsmokey
It seems like they teach "How to Hit-and-Run" in driving schools here. So many drivers do it.