crime

One dead, 2 in coma after car chased by police slams into taxi

18 Comments

A car being chased by a police patrol car crashed into a taxi, killing the passenger in Iwade, Wakayama Prefecture, on Sunday morning.

According to police, the 2-kilometer-long chase began just before 2 a.m. NTV reported that the patrol car pursued the car which was traveling at 80 kph when it went through a red light at an intersection and slammed into the taxi turning right.

A 43-year-old man in the back seat of the taxi died three hours later of heavy injuries sustained in the crash. The 61-year-old taxi driver and the 50-year-old driver of the car being chased remain in a coma, police said.

Police said the patrol car ordered the car to stop after it was driving in an erratic manner. The driver ignored the call and sped off.

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18 Comments
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I believe traumatic injuries would explain the victims injuries with more clarity rather than heavy.

Police chases are made for movies, not reality.

-7 ( +7 / -14 )

Drugs ...

-9 ( +2 / -11 )

Police chases are made for movies, not reality.

I'm sick of police being blamed for chasing people who break the law. Of course it's tragic someone died and the taxi driver was injured, but that's the responsibility of the car driver, no one else.

If someone runs from the police they need to be chased, caught, and the reason investigated. Maybe he had a body in the trunk? Maybe he had a warrant out for his arrest already? You can't just let people go if they speed off.

To stop the temptation for people to run, penalties for doing so should be ramped up, as well as a TV ad campaign highlighting that you'll be caught anyway, but may kill/hurt other people in the process and even if you don't, you'll be FAR worse off for running than if you just pulled over at the start.

Lets stop blaming the police for doing their job and put the blame where it's deserved - with those that run.

I hope he wakes up so he can spend the rest of his life in jail.

24 ( +27 / -4 )

The police must be trained to decide whether taking custody of a suspect in a pursuit (chase) outweighs the dangers that could lie ahead.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Police chases in Japan - for the most part - do not usually end quickly or safely. The mandate in a chase is to bring it to a conclusion as quickly as possible without endangering the public... One of the biggest problems here is that 80% of the police force is cruising aroun in little <100 hp k-cars and about all they can actually accomplish is to parade around following the perpetrator HOPING they will either grow a conscience and stop or crash before / without injuring a member of the public... If the "average" police car was built for something other than going to Seiyu for groceries then perhaps these chases could be halted much sooner and therefore endanger less citizens... It's not a matter of chases being needed or not ( I believe that they are necessary somethimes ) it's a matter of giving the pursuers a fighting chance of concluding a stop in the shortest possible distance - AND you can't do that chasing a V6 anything with a K or Klown car...

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Kiwiboy, the body is not in the trunk. It's in the back of the taxi. Funny thing is, had there not been a chase, there wouldn't be a body.

Never mind. The cops got their man. Yiihaw.

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

Would there have been a police car nearby when our car was rear-ended, causing it to be totaled.

The culprit sped off rather than took responsibility. Hit & run but fortunately no one injured other than a slight whiplash.

Not worth a dangerous chase but this is what can happen when the guilty leave the scene, and you end up footing the bill.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Few times I have seen police chasing a car ... Frankly they drive slowly and using speaker to ask the chased car to stop , so I think that is the case always ... so we should not blame the police but the reckless driver who escape.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

The police in Japan stop a car for going through a red light? No, the police were chasing the driver for failing to stop most likely. The fact that the police crashed may be due to inexperience or negligence. it is a shame that someone died.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

kiwiboyNOV. 30, 2014 - 04:28PM JST Police chases are made for movies, not reality. I'm sick of police being blamed for chasing people who break the law. Of course it's tragic someone died and the taxi driver was injured, but that's the responsibility of the car driver, no one else. If someone runs from the police they need to be chased, caught, and the reason investigated. Maybe he had a body in the trunk? Maybe he had a warrant out for his arrest already? You can't just let people go if they speed off. To stop the temptation for people to run, penalties for doing so should be ramped up, as well as a TV ad campaign highlighting that you'll be caught anyway, but may kill/hurt other people in the process and even if you don't, you'll be FAR worse off for running than if you just pulled over at the start. Lets stop blaming the police for doing their job and put the blame where it's deserved - with those that run.

I hope he wakes up so he can spend the rest of his life in jail.

As a Kiwi you should know better - there is no excuse for putting people's lives at risk, none, ever. Cops in NZ/US use GPS tracking to chase assailants - there are new devices that lock onto the chasee; no need to race through the streets after them just wait till they get home and arrest them there. Japan doesn't do 'safety campaigns' like they do in your home country - sadly.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Condolences to the family and friends of the victim of the irresponsible driver's crime, and I hope the taxi driver pulls through. As for the driver trying to evade the police, I hope he survives, too, but only to suffer for his crime. May he be a prisoner of his own disabled body.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Drugs ...

2am, erratic driving, 50 years old....I'd say he was drunk driving.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

50 years old? He was a drunken oyaji on his way home from the girly bar for sure! I'd even go as far to say he was driving either a Toyota Crown or a Nissan Cima tank. I regularly see old drunks rolling in and out of their cars in the early hours. This is the result of hefty penalties and passive policing. These old fellas have been doing it for years and they know they can get away with it. However, when they do get spotted they bolt and these kinds of accidents are the result. Irresponsible drivers are way too common in Japan. Running red lights, no seat belts, using phones while driving, speeding in side streets and drink driving are an everyday thing. Someone mentioned the other day when that truck hit a car while he was texting, if the J-Cops would get out of their kobans and start really enforcing the road traffic laws they would knock a huge hole in the public debt very quickly. And, they would also get a lot of these rat bags off the roads!

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

@kiwiboy, even at at the chance he has a body, recovering the body of a dead person even isn't worth instigating a chase in the middle of traffic that is likely to kill several innocent people. If the driver puts the petal to the metal, just get the plate number and track him down later and SAVE LIVES.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

What an @$$..he just ruined so many lives because of his selfish stupidity RIP to the taxi passenger.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Obey these simple rules and you should be fine: http://youtu.be/QR465HoCWFQ

0 ( +0 / -0 )

DaDude, you are right. The 50-yr-old driver admitted being drunk, apparently.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Lets stop blaming the police for doing their job

Yes, it's pretty rare, but apparently very occasionally they actually do their job

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

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