A 1-year-old girl died after she was hit by a car driven by her father in front of their residence in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, on Sunday.
Police said that at around 12:30 p.m., Hiroyuki Kobayashi, 41, was pulling out of the parking lot beside his residence when he hit his daughter Chinatsu, Fuji TV reported.
Kobayashi was quoted by police as saying he did not notice Chinatsu who was right in front of the car. Kobayashi was getting ready to go shopping with his wife and Chinatsu.
The child suffered head injuries. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.
© Japan Today
37 Comments
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Kobe White Bar Owner
Tragic, r.i.p little one.
erbaviva
so sorry to hear that a toddler died becuase she is outside without a parent holding her... a moving car, an inattentive parent, a curious baby perfect mix for a disaster
the_sheriff
Heart-wrenching...
TheGodfather
A ONE-YEAR-OLD child can just about stand unaided. Maybe even TODDLING around unaided. But a decent parent would not turn their back on a ONE-YEAR-OLD child for even a few minutes...
RIP Chinatsu-chan!! :-(
bjohnson23
great, more foreigners with rip comments like this really helps anyone at all. Please keep the rips to western papers only. In Japan this is rude.
Moderator: You're the one who is being rude. A very poor contribution from you.
smithinjapan
This is one of the reasons why I am against the "you pull out the car and we'll all get in after" thing that is so common here. Had they all gotten in the car and pulled out together she'd be alive.
Steve Crichton
The wife must take most of the blame. The father was getting car ready the wife/mother should have been looking after the 1 year old.
DaDude
RIP and prayers with the family. It was an accident I know but as we point the finger at the father or mother, realize that the rest of their lives are already doomed because of this.
itsonlyrocknroll
Condolences to Mom and Dad, so many ifs and buts...
genjuro
What a tragic way to start the year. R.I.P. little one.
Disillusioned
Sad indeed! It just shows how quickly and easily things can change, especially with little kids around. You can never be too careful with little kids.
There is no need to point the finger at anybody! A one-year-old kid can be very inquisitive and quick to escape. The article does not state how far past her first birthday she was. My son was walking at 8 months old and running everywhere on his first birthday.
Amy Braun
It's not just her fault, the guy should of been attentive too.
Danny Bloom
this happened last month in the news here in japan. where and when did this habit of you pull the car out first and then me and the kids will get in later start. i never heard of this before.
karlrb
Their pain must be and will be intense for a very very long time. No need to point fingers. I'm sure each one of them feels much blame for the accident. A mistake was made, a tragic mistake. Let the parents be.
Moon1
That's what people do on this site sadly, so many armchair experts with all the answers.
nath
Oh that was painful to read. Horrible. Rest in Peace little one. it was a tragic accident, the family is suffering enough.
TheGodfather
"when did this habit of you pull the car out first and then me and the kids will get in later start?"
Probably about the first time someone GOT AWAY WITH MURDER!!
Frederic Bastiat
Tragic. Terribly horrifying for the parents. RIP, little one.
Tamarama
God, I hate reading these kinds of stories. I feel sooooo sorry for these parents. The father will never recover.
Trying to apportion blame solves nothing, serves no purpose.
chuichi
RIP little girl...
Wc626
The problem is that Japanese homes and those tiny patches of land they're built on are too cluttered . The front doors are usually close to the vehicle coming out of that narrow drive way, that the vehicle barely fits in. Take into account that there are no wide green lawns, acting as a buffer, and limited peripheral vision for any driver backing out of those dangerous conditions.
Geoff Gillespie
@ serendipitous
Well said. At least some of us get it. I can only assume that TheGodfather isn't a parent. Not that it would explain his insensitivity...
AsianGaijinYesWeExist
I cringe every time I see little kids in my neighborhood roaming the streets for hours with their parents nowhere in sight. Between potential kidnappers/pedophiles and speeding teenage drivers, it is just a tragedy waiting to happen.
Samuel Sylvester
poor little girl.it can happen to anyone,dont put much blame on any body,no parents wants to loose his child like that,what we need to do is to console this grief parents right now.i pray they have the heart to bear this loss.i wish the little girl to rest in peace.
Geoff Gillespie
Agreed. Unless we were there and witnessed the tragedy unfold, how can we possibly act like a kangaroo court and say that it was all down to PARENTAL NEGLIGENCE?
AsianGaijinYesWeExist
It's one thing to specifically blame the parents of this little girl, for this particular incident.
It's another to have a fruitful discussion on parenting style in general that might lead to such a tragedy. Between parents that send their kids 'out to pasture' for eons and those that watch them like a hawk every second of the waking hour, there has to be a good balance somewhere.
TheGodfather
"how can we... say that it was all down to PARENTAL NEGLIGENCE?"
Because the article DOES NOT SAY what the mother was doing. The article DELIBERATELY does not say...
Tamarama
Give it a rest pal. You have virtually no idea what has happened here, so you can't make any kind of reasonable assessment of the circumstances from the comfort of your armchair. You certainly can't draw any kind of informed conclusion based on what you think is not included in the article.
These things happen worldwide. It's just a tragic accident. Put your noose away,
TheGodfather
"based on what you THINK is not included in the article"
I think you will find that it is indeed a FACT that the mother's whereabouts are not mentioned in the article. An intelligent person would ask WHY?
timtak
According to Japanese news reports, the mum (;-;) was just at the point of locking the front door when the "frontover" occurred. http://news.tbs.co.jp/newseye/tbs_newseye2682315
Tamarama
So what?
Would they? As timtak has just pointed out, the news has said she was locking the front door.
So how does an 'intelligent' person feel now?
TheGodfather
Better than the naive people who were assuming that the mother was INSIDE the house. It was obvious that she was OUTSIDE the house.
An intelligent person would have guessed, from the omitted fact, that...
She was OUTSIDE the house, not too far away... WATCHING THE CHILD...
But doing nothing to prevent it!!
Tamarama
What people? Not one poster in this thread has said anything about her being inside the house.
That's funny. You haven't mentioned that before.
Do you know what a Strawman argument is? You should - you've just tried to create one. Credibility = zero.
I think 2 things.
You are completely inexperienced with children and have no idea what you are really talking about.
Are more than a little self-delusional about your...'intelligence'.timtak
Hear hear. Bearing in mind that the Japanese press mention the whereabouts of the mother, explaining that the child was run over in the "brief period of time" (suki, 隙) that the mother's attention was directed towards locking her front door, an intelligent person would, or at least might, ask WHY it was that this fact was not mentioned in this article!
turbotsat
What other explanation is there? Did the kid teleport to that location?
iradickle
R.I.P I just wish that tragedies like this would register. Keep your eyes on you kids, not just for the next day after you hear about this.