crime

Truck driver arrested after fatal accident

14 Comments

Police in Tokyo's Koto Ward said Thursday they have arrested a truck driver after he hit and killed an 8-year-old boy who was crossing the road in front of his school.

According to police, the incident occurred at around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday on a pedestrian crosswalk in front of Ariake Elementary School, TV Asahi reported. The child was rushed to hospital with severe head injuries, but died later that night.

Police said the 44-year-old driver of the truck appeared to have been trying to beat the light before it turned red when his vehicle struck the boy.

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14 Comments
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Trucks seem to be out of control.

Did he have those illegal side curtains that are so in vogue?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Truck drivers have no manners in Japan.

BTW JT, please do proofread.

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I do not agree with you guys above, I've seen this behavior not only with trucks but mostly taxi drivers. I think they are a real plague, and have dangerously little knowledge of traffic rules. So sad for the little boy anyway, and for his family.

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The so called "professional" drivers lack a bit when it comes to driving skills, even if you'd think that was an important part. I guess it's just a symptom of the Japanese attitude towards traffic rules in general. Just this morning, I nearly got run over by some semi-blind oyaji not stopping at the ever present '止まれ' sign. Loved that he turned left and only looked that way, too.

Truck drivers speeding, running red light, smoking, checking their keitai... I see it everyday. Nothing will change here since the powers that be do no take action before things happen. This is a society based on the reactive approach.

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Yea I agree its mostly taxies here, absolute disregard of rules.. recently though if you threaten police they seem to get it. That said seeing one of em trying to go thru red on large intersection near meguro and getting proper nuked by a track gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling

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i cant imagine the pain the family is going through , people let's pray these terrible accident's will end

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Everyone is mentioning truck and taxi drivers, but in my part of Japan the regular folks drive quite unaware of pedestrians as well. I would love to see more that just two weeks a year of 'school zone safety' monitoring with police pulling over people for speeding or failing to stop. Maybe once enough people get tickets they will finally become aware of how reckless they are

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Very sad. Surprising it doesn't happen more often. Every day I witness flagrant disregard of traffic laws by the full spectrum of drivers. The one thing I do not witness is a police presence.

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Very sad. RIP.

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From the news it looks like it was orange and not red yet... Probably the kid started started walking before he get green signal......cannot accuse the driver alone...

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My worst fear for my kids: sometimes no sidewalks, white lines not corresponding to "stop" meaning, roadlsignals that cannot be clearly seen, ...

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Mirai HayashiJun. 06, 2014 - 08:52AM JST

Truck drivers have no manners in Japan.

Truck drivers suck everywhere. My best friends parents were killed by a truck driver in Canada who was going way over the speed limit on a snow-covered highway. Of course, no criminal charges were made because it was an "accident".

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Truck drivers have no manners in Japan.

I absolutely hate it when people think driving is about manners. Its not about manners. People who think its about manners generate confusion. If you stop in an odd place to be mannerly, you may cause an accident. Your manners can be interpreted as a mistake or can just flat out be a mistake.

Driving is about following rules. For that matter, so is riding bicycles and being a pedestrian. Somebody did not follow the rules here, maybe both of them. Yes, I see people react to the yellow as if it means speed up. And yes, I see elementary school students run out onto the road without checking or waiting for the light to change.

So sorry for the dead boy and his family. But whatever happened he could have saved himself by looking both ways before crossing and stopping when he saw the truck was coming. Of that I have no doubt.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Possible case of the classic Japanese kid throwing up a hand to stop traffic and heading mindlessly into the street.

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