Psychiatrist gets prison term in fatal seizure-caused car crash

Geez, seems a bit harsh... Five years?

There's no proof at all that a seizure caused this accident, but this doctor was smart enough to use his medical history as an excuse, less liability

as a psychiatrist, he should have had knowledge of a causal relationship between fatigue and seizure.

No. As a psychiatrist, he hasn't much of a clue about what goes on in the mind.

Not sure about this country but in others you have to go two years without having a seizure before you are officially fit to drive.

The main arguments for and against are quite odd.

The sentence is harsh (for Japan) but he did kill someone and injure others.

Driving 150 Kim's earlier that day kinda settled his fate?

I mean, that could be a 2 hour drive back and forth from the beach...not necessarily an exhausting thing.

In any case the people he hurt have had their lives changed and now so is his life changed, and all for the worse...pretty sad.

ex partner had seizures. totally unpredictable, but 99.9% they were fine. if you punish this disease, then you have ban fat, overworked middle aged drivers (heart attack risk), junk food eaters, smokers, overworked sleep deprived drivers...

GOOD! I'm sick of the people who were defending this guy and the crane driver a couple of years back for driving when they KNEW this kind of thing could happen. It is a terrible disease that no one should suffer, but the pity you ought to (if you don't) feel for sufferers should not allow them to do things that put themselves and others at risk.

No. As a psychiatrist, he hasn't much of a clue about what goes on in the mind.

As a psychiatrist he is a registered MD, so it is not that far of a stretch of the imagination that he would not know about the affects of fatigue.

I mean, that could be a 2 hour drive back and forth from the beach...not necessarily an exhausting thing.

Coming from someone who is healthy and not potential physical problems, I would agree...BUT he also failed to notify the licensing authorities that he had epilepsy, because he would have had to forfeit his license.

So take all that into account and I think he got off lucky.

Very sad, but a woman was killed and 4 others injured so there has to be some punishment

He should never have been allowed to drive. Why aren't medical practitioners legally obliged to tell the licence agencywhen patients are diagnosed with seizures, cognitive impairment etc, like in many other countries?

As a doctor he knew seizures can happen, even if you take your meds. Five years isn't enough.

I would rather drive in the lane next to an epileptic who is taking medicine than someone who is casually smoking and is driving with one hand on the wheel. Or for that matter someone who is talking to other people in the car and turning their head away from the road in front. Or someone who only got a couple hours of sleep. The chances of most epileptics suffering seizures whilst on medication is extremely remote but because Japanese prosecutors see it as an easy win it seems every single instance of an epilepsy related accident is reported in the media. I fail to see why Japan insists on differentiating epilepsy (for those who properly take their medication of course) from other medical events such as heart attacks, and the examples I provided above.

Also, totally off-topic, but I really wish the police would go after parents with unrestrained babies/children in cars. I see it almost every day and it is a tragic death waiting to happen.

Had a random seizure in middle school once, and never had a history of it. It hasn't happened again in 17 years. You actually don't know if one can hit you. The man is a psychiatrist, not a neurologist. Sounds like the judge is ignorant about doctors.

Geez, seems a bit harsh... Five years? he is a doctor and was fully aware of the risks, ask the womens family if they think 5 yrs is too harsh!

Had a random seizure in middle school once, and never had a history of it. It hasn't happened again in 17 years. You actually don't know if one can hit you. The man is a psychiatrist, not a neurologist. Sounds like the judge is ignorant about doctors.

You don't know about doctors. Psychiatrists are trained doctors who have specialised. They have the same medical training as every other doctor and they do learn about epilepsy as medical students.