Car mounts sidewalk, killing 9-year-old boy and injuring 3 others
TOKYO —
A passenger car driven by a 20-year-old man ran onto a sidewalk and hit four pedestrians Sunday night in a Tokyo residential district, leaving one of them, a 9-year-old boy, dead and the other three seriously injured, police said.
Tomohiro Miyata was arrested at the scene of the 9:45 p.m. accident in the Denenchofu district in Ota Ward, and has admitted to the allegation of negligent driving resulting in death and injuries, the Metropolitan Police Department said, adding that no alcohol was detected in the driver.
The dead boy was identified Monday as Mitsuyori Mizushima from Tochigi Prefecture. His 6-year-old male cousin is in a coma after suffering a head trauma, while his 68-year-old grandfather and 67-year-old grandmother temporarily lost consciousness after sustaining serious injuries.
Three male passengers aged 19 and 20 were in the car, and two of them were slightly wounded as they jumped out from the backseat, police said.
The four men were on their way to Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture from Tokyo. The car plowed into the pedestrians on the sidewalk of a four-lane straight road after running through a red light at a busy intersection. It then rammed into a power pole and the hedge of a condominium.
Compiled from news reports
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Papigiulio
the parents of that 9 y.o boy have a VERY bad christmas. rip :(
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LFRAgain
Drunk driving? Hope the little asshat behind the whell wasn't planning anything substantial with the remainder of his now-demolished life. What a tragic waste on all fronts.
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okapake
Same thing I was thinking - drunk while driving!!!
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roomtemperature
Funny! The article clearly states that the police found no alcohol in the driver. But it seems posters on JT go into automatic mode when reading things like this and type as fast as they can "DRUNK DRIVING!!!".
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Carcharodon
No alcohol? more like playing on his keitai and not concentrating...
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chuckers
Pretty sure that is supposed to read "as they were THROWN out of the car from the backseat."
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LoneWolfwfk
Carcharodon - I bet you are absolutely correct! The most amazing thing I've seen so far is a guy on one of those motor-scooters using his keitai while driving. Crazy! I'm surprised we don't hear about more accidents related to keitai use.
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Billgates
Roomtempreture, JT posters seem to be speed readers. As a result, they always crash at a pace incredibly faster than the accidents they comment on. (^_~)
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mikehuntez
No alcohol but age and friends means he was probably speeding and lost control of his car.
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Patrick Smash
There is no crackdown on driving without paying proper attention. It's usually the "keitai" that is to blame, but we don't know all the facts. How terribly sad.
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smithinjapan
roomtemperature: You're right, people should read a little more before making such comments, but given that it's bon-enkai season it's an easy jump.
Nonetheless, I'm curious as to the 'negligence' here. I mean, you don't just jump up on a side-walk and plow into people unless you're doing something else while driving. I'm also akin to believe he was probably checking email or something on his cell, but hey.
Anyway, RIP to the kid and my condolences to the parents.
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tokyokawasaki
Very sad indeed. RIP little man, and I hope your cousin pulls through.
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IfeelImust
RIP little guy.
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YongYang
Jeeeezus. Sick of idiot drivers taking lives. I live in Kawasaki, I wish he'd made to his hometown.
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Okinawamike
"after running through a red light at a busy intersection."
Could be a lot of reasons.
What was the road conditions? Wet, ice?
Did someone step out into the crosswalk as soon as the light changed causing him to swerve?
Was he on the keitai?
Did his friends cover his eyes?
Does not matter what was the reason, he was neglect in controlling the car and now will pay the price.
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kyushujoe
To all the haters: You know what? We all make mistakes; some of us are lucky and get away with them, others aren't so lucky. The loss of life is tragic and something this young man's going to have to live with for the rest of his life. The boy's parents too, but not with the horrible sense of guilt. Calling the driver names and libeling him ("drunk while driving") doesn't help anyone.
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GJDailleult
Two offenses here, running a red light, and running onto a sidewalk and crashing into a power pole. Seem unrelated if there is no alcohol involved, unless he suddenly realized there were pedestrians in the crosswalk and veered to try and avoid them. Just a guess here, but some people may have stepped out into the crossing when the light changed without checking the traffic and didn't see the car coming.
Don't mean that to blame any pedestrians or the victims in any way. Just that I came about half a meter from getting killed a few years back by an idiot speeding the wrong way down a one-way street in my neighborhood when I stepped out looking in only one direction. A reminder to try to stay alert at all times, there are unfortunately a lot of this idiots on the roads, as this sad accident shows again.
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Zenny11
Just a tragic accident(whatever the cause).
RIP little one and condolences to all families involved.
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seesaw2
The 20-year old deserves a life sentence and rot in prison. No fast cars, no beating traffic lights anymore. And no pardon too.
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fishy
One careless mistake, one accident can ruin so many people's lives.. it is scary and even if you are being careful, there's a chance that you might get involved in an accident.. My son loves cars and motorcycles, and even though there are years before he can even get a license, I've got to keep telling him every time we're in a car how dangerous cars can be and it is definitely not cool to drive fast just because you can..
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Patrick Smash
Okinawamike, okay, you don't live here perhaps. No rain, no ice, perfect driving conditions. But he runs a red light, mounts the curb, hits 4 people, kills one, and may have killed two. If you think he did this observing the speed limit with his eyes on the road, fair enough. I think he was probably on the phone, or doing something stupid.
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jojo_in_japan
I guess it's that time of the year. Everyone is in a rush. I'm utterly surprised to see so many ppl run either very stale yellow lights or fresh red light ... taxis, delivery trucks esp bad.
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dolphingirl
This is sad for all those involved; particularly for the parents of the 9-year-old boy. I think running a red light and then plowing into pedestrians is a little more than just a 'careless mistake' that could happen to any driver. It is very clear that this young man was being completely reckless and now he will be forced to face the consequences.
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browny1
As others have said - we don't know the exact circumstances - BUT running a red light (as the article mentions) IS serious business.
Unfortunately the authorities rarely clamp down on it and it has entered the mind-set of many drivers as "the done thing".
Penalize red light runners heavily.
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namabiru4me
Tragic for everyone involved.
I remember my 20s and driving fast and reckless. Thank goodness it never ended the same way as this young man.
The poor grandparents, I cannot imagine their pain.
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Junnama
With my kids traffic is the thing that scares me most here in japan. I dread the thought of someday getting a call about something like this.
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kevinintokyo
RIP little guy. The police need to step up action in Japan. It may and probably would not have prevented this tragedy but it needs to be done. The fresh red light runners and the small children standing in the front seat of moving vehicles are the worst.
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YongYang
I see SO many SO many drivers go through reds, just turned BUT red when they could have stopped easily. Outside Kobans, in front of patrol cars and NOTHING is done. Time to enforce the rules of the road.
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moonbeams
Is there anyone here who's never accidentally drove through a red light before?
Most people are lucky.
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limboinjapan
I have been driving in Japan for nearly 20 years and I need to drive a lot for work.
When I first arrived I was amazed at how polite the drivers were they would signal to other drivers trying to change lanes the "OK" to cut in from of them and the driver who was let in would signal back a "thank you", I would regularly see driver patiently waiting for the green light at 2 or 3 in the morning on completely empty roads, etc..
These days with cell phone and GPS and other self centered items it seems that more and more driver think the roads are there just for them.
Yesterday in just a few hours I saw:
One man driving with what looked like a 2 or 3 month old baby in his arms.
One Lady driving with her stupid little dog on her lap with its head out the drivers window.
3 drivers texting, several talking on there cell phones with no hands free.
5 cars run reds lights (not lights that just turned but lights that had been red for some time and I was stopped at those lights, this was around 1:15 AM).
And the most ironic of it all was that I was stopped by the police because it was 1:30 AM and I was driving very slowly looking for the address of a clients office and the parking entrance. (yes folks deadline work at 1:30 AM)
I am not sure what this guy was doing but I can speculate that he was either speeding, texting, talking on the phone, adjusting his GPS while driving or a combination of these.
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whiskeysour
staying on the sidewalk is not the safe idea all the time.
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smithinjapan
Unbelievable that people here are defending the driver or trying to find reasons to rationalize what he did.
kyushujoe: " You know what? We all make mistakes;"
I know! I actually forgot to lock my door the other day when I left the house. This guy killed a nine year old boy while speeding through a red light, and critically injured three others. True, we all make mistakes, but driving through a red light is not exactly and subsequently hitting a bunch of people on a sidewalk is not quite like saying your wife doesn't look good in that dress.
GJDailleult: "Just a guess here, but some people may have stepped out into the crossing when the light changed without checking the traffic and didn't see the car coming."
I'm not saying you're defending the guy, but at the very least your 'guess' would be incorrect... at least for the people hit on the SIDEWALK. And anyway, even if they had stepped out onto the street (and their lives saved as a result), why can't they if the light their way is green?
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Speed
There's a lot of speculation going on here. This reminds me of a bunch of middle aged obasans gossiping and spreading rumors that the driver: was drunk, using his cellphone, changing his CD, watching TV, etc. when in reality know one here knows anything at all about the actual cause of the accident.
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Ah_so
Judge, jury and executioner, based on little more than a superficial article that gives no detail as to what happened, other than give the driver's age and what he was arrested for. Based on this lack of information you recommend a punishment reserved for all but the most wicked murderers.
You never know, perhaps we was driving a Toyota and the brakes failed.
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DuraAce
Guaranteed he is going to be yet another one of these brainless idiots we see here EVERY SINGLE WAKING MINUTE. The level of stupidity here astounds me.
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martyman
Kyushujoe: you are right labeling someone something they are not is not right. But as this story goes, this 20 year old man driving a car is a murderer by default. Wacthing the news, it seems ike he was possible drifting through the intersection to make the red light. The poor nine year old boy has had his life taken away from him due to the drivers negligence.I would say it was lucky he was caught for his crime. Being a father myself, I feel very sad for the boys family and can imagine their grief if I lost my son due to a negligent driver bad habits.
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GJDailleult
OTHER people may have stepped out into the crosswalk. Not talking about the victims on the sidewalk. It is a possible explanation for how the driver ended up on the sidewalk, not a defense of reckless driving.
As for why can't you just walk if your light is green, isn't the answer obvious?
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EbiChiri
I was walking on a sidewalk with two friends in Tokyo 25 years ago when a taxi suddenly lurched up on the sidewalk right in front of us and smashed through the shuttered front of a barber shop. One second further and all three of us would have been either killed or terribly injured. You're not safe even on the sidewalk so keep your wits about you at all times.
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Disillusioned
Yep, Speed. That was mt first thought too, but that is not to say all the speculative events mentioned don't happen with alarming regularity on the roads of Japan. Driving is gambling in Japan and it seems that being a pedestrian also has its fatal flaws.
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Youdontknow
Another moron runs a red light and takes a life as a result. Give the idiot ten years inside, banned from driving for life.
RIP little one...
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lostrune2
Time for traffic cameras!
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Raymasaki
people do alot of Dumb things here too. I see many on a daily basis Go through stop signs & Jet through Yellow Lights. & Drive really fast up to a stop sign OR RedLight. Well for one thing he should Never be allowed to drive again.
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