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Local residents on Sunday morning placed flowers at the scene of a traffic accident that left two children dead and 14 others injured three years ago, in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture.
A small memorial ceremony was held at a makeshift altar at 10 a.m., the time the accident occurred, NHK reported. Local residents placed bouquets and offered prayers at the site.
In February 2020, Fumiko Shintate, 53, was convicted and sentenced to 4 1/2 years for negligent driving resulting in death and injury after she turned at an intersection on May 8, 2019, and collided with a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction. The car hit by Shintate's careened into a group of preschoolers, leaving two dead and injuring 14 others, including three nursery school teachers.
While her lawyer sought leniency, the Otsu District Court said her failure to pay attention to oncoming traffic should be considered seriously negligent.
The judge also said her pledge to never again drive a car was not sufficient reason to reduce the sentence.
Before she was sentenced, Shintate told the court, "The outcome might have been different had the speed of the other vehicle been slower or if there was a fence at the site of the accident, but I think I'm the one to blame," while the prosecutors said she has not sufficiently repented.
Her lawyer argued that the other vehicle's driver, who was not charged over the incident, was partially at fault.
© Japan Today
5 Comments
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snowymountainhell
Have driven the roadway of the site many times since and seems most drivers may have forgotten this terrible tragedy. While there were many police in the are for days & weeks after, there has since been no slow down to the morning commute in either direction.
Many continue to disregard signs and signals in their rush to commute or,
just to get to the nearby shopping mall that opens at 10am.
factchecker
The cops here are completely useless. They won't go after red light runners or idiots texting while driving. The chances of another tragic incident like this are very high.
kurisupisu
She turned suddenly against oncoming traffic and admitted her negligence.
How could the other driver have been partially to blame?
This is the warped logic that the J-cops here use.
virusrex
The article mention her lawyer making this claim, it is not mentioned that the cops agreed with it, specially since it was not charged.
onsenandbeer2013
Exactly... They instead love to stand and hide just around the corner of oncoming traffic, and go after the no seat belt wearing offenders... That's big time for J-cops. Or they need 10 cops to "control" someone passed out on the ground drunk after a night out drinking. They can't be bothered doing real police work.