Man lying on Saitama street killed in hit-and-run

well, when we see what happened to the driver of the highway, no one can blame this driver for freaking out and leaving ! too sad to be pushed by the law to act against it !

Rather than "sleeping," a more appropriate term would be "passed out." What ever happened to the saying that "God Protects Drunks?" Looks like it did not help this guy.... At the same time, I wonder about the state of the driver? Were they also drunk?

Maybe they though me was already dead?

Stupid guys I hope they catch him... yeah id day they were heavy on the sake.

"no one can blame this driver for freaking out and leaving"

Absolutely! Why, if I ran over someone lying in the street, I'd just say, "Too bad!" and keep going!

no ! he should have called an ambulance and the police to notice it ! but the drunk guy had his head on the road in the middle of the night, and the driver may have been anybody... i feel sorry for him, because of a stupid drunker he may spend several years in prison, and because he escaped the time in prison will increase more !... but after reading the news of the truck driver arrested for hitting a old guy crossing the highway in the middle of the night, i can not blame too much the driver in the current story for fleeing...

I generally try not to run over people I see on the road. Or any object in front of my vehicle. I would hope that should I ever passout from either alcohol ir sunstroke or whateve reason, that someone woul at least try to get me off the road, rather than just drive over me. Poor guy my A$$, he should have slowed when he saw what was on the road, and tried not go over it, he coulod have saved a life if he was a half competent driver, instead he snuffed one out then ran away. NEVER excuse or applaude cowards.

At 2:25am the van driver was probably drunk too.

I still dont get it, Ive been driving for a while, and also been driving here in Japan for about a year,if its so difficult to not run someone over, I would have cleaned up hundreds of shuffling 2 foot obaasans by now. If you didnt see him mate, you weren't looking.

I'm not defending the driver, but is it really so easy to see a man lying on the street at night. Suppose the man was in dark clothes. Would the headlights illuminate the body in time for the driver to react?

true smartacus, but the dude had a good look at his handywork and then ran away. Have to also wonder, if there were witnesses to the incident, why had no-one helped the guy off the road already? It was well enough lit for witnesses to see it all go down it would seem. I bet someone walked straight by the bugger, and now hes dead because they didnt stop to see if he was ok.

notimpressed, the point about witnesses is very indicative about Japanese society. Although there may not have been many passers-by at 2:25 a.m., it has been my observation after 20 years in Japan, that passersby will very rarely stop to help anybody in trouble. I've seen drunks passed out on train platforms, others on sidewalks, park benches and so on. Japanese people either pretend not to see them or, more likely, the "uchi-soto" (inside their own little world, OK; outside, not my affair) mentality kicks in. Helping distressed people is the job of uniforms.

I'm pleasantly surprised the woman passerby at least called for help, but it would have been unthinkable for her to actually touch the guy and maybe pull him back onto the curb. A planet would leave its orbit before a Japanese could do such a thing for a stranger.

Darwinism at its finest

Let me guess, the guy drove away rather than be automatically assumed to be leagally responsable. I don't know in this situation whether the driver should be held accountable for the accident (rather than the abandonment) or not (I wasn't there, obviously), but I would hazard to guess that their would be less "hit & runs" if the law was set up differently.

I think this case, while sad, illustrates very well the harm that Japanese handling of auto-pedestrian accidents does. By that, I mean that currently, 100% of the fault is assigned to the auto driver in most cases (according to my friend in the insurance industry). This leads to people hitting and running, because they know they will be blamed. The fact is, though, that pedestrians can be hit by cars if they take certain actions, regardless of a driver's vigilance. In light of this, I don't think the current way of handling these accidents is fair or effective.

The morals of this story: 1) Don't drink so much you might end up sleeping in a place where giant machines will kill you. 2) Whether it's right or not, people will disregard or flee laws and practices that are not inherently logical or fair.

the driver is no responsible for that if he din't run away.

it would have been unthinkable for her to actually touch the guy and maybe pull him back onto the curb.

Actually, I've been in this situation, about 8/9 years ago. My ex-husband and I were walking along the main street in Joetsu, on our way home from the pub, and we saw a guy on the other side of the street, lying half on the pavement and half off the road. We didn't want to touch the guy, in case he woke up and got violent, so we called the police. They wanted to take my ex's name and contact details, but my ex refused and told them just to get over there and sort it out. We then departed swiftly, in order to avoid spending a tedious hour or two talking to the J-satsu.

Darwinism at its finest

hahaha

15 years ago the description of "a white van" would have been "a van." Remember when nearly all cars and vans were white?

re: not helping those in distress. This is part of the Japanese national character. God forbid you ever find yourself choking in a restaurant, or having a heart attack in public. You'd die in the middle of a circle of Japanese faces.