Car with U.S. military license plate flees scene of accident in Okinawa

Sunday 05th April, 06:32 AM JST

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BBLeo at 04:53 PM JST - 5th April

All of you wait until they nab the driver. Car could also be stolen. Have you ever thinking of that? I'll wait until UPDATE. My presumption is that casuing that was; 'Mr Alcohol or DURGS.' WHAT ELSE IT COULD BE? The blind is saying; 'WE WILL WAIT AND SEE.'
likeitis at 07:11 PM JST - 5th April

Well, you don't need to be drunk to get involved in such an accident. You also don't need to be drunk to have the desire to flee. Without having seen this crossing and its signal for myself, of course I have to assume everything is in proper order and the driver 100 percent at fault and deserving of all the punishment it entails.

However, I have to ask: Three people, and no one saw the car coming? Looks like another case of idiot pedestrians looking at the green man instead of the road, not to mention being somewhat deaf. They probably RAN out as soon as it turned green too. HELLO! It is a traffic SIGNAL, not an order from God to walk or run, m'kay? A s-i-g-n-a-l that it is your turn. But if a car steals your turn, DO NOT TRY TO BODY BLOCK. Let the car go, flip the finger, check again, THEN cross.

Had they been jaywalking I bet they would have been more careful. Maybe they should have.
UnagiDon at 08:19 PM JST - 5th April

likeitis;

A car hitting and injuring three separate people means it's very unlikely we can play blame the victim here, ignoring that fact that even if the pedestrians somehow forced the car to hit them, the driver shouldn't have fled.
Badge213 at 08:49 PM JST - 5th April

likeitis, so what lets say all three were jaywalking, it's still bad to hit people with your car and not stop .
likeitis at 09:22 PM JST - 5th April

UnagiDon: A car hitting and injuring three separate people means it's very unlikely we can play blame the victim here

No kidding. I am not blaming the victim. I am saying they could have saved themselves from getting hit by a car by opening their darned eyes and ears. The "blame" goes to the driver because he obviously did not have the right of way. The driver either ran a red light or put the petal to metal when the light turned green and made a really quick turn either left or right. So while I am not blaming the victim (at this time because I lack info), I am accusing them of being darned careless.
likeitis at 09:29 PM JST - 5th April

Badge213: likeitis, so what lets say all three were jaywalking, it's still bad to hit people with your car and not stop .

Yes, it is. It only goes double when it seems the driver is at fault.
benibiker at 05:00 AM JST - 6th April

If the car didn't have a "Y" license plate this wouldn't have been news...
FreeInJapan at 08:54 AM JST - 6th April

I disagree about this only being in the news only because of the Y plate. We see news about hit-and-runs all the time in JT, the only actual difference is that it's going to be much easier to investigate because there are surviving witnesses, and the Y plate gives a pretty good sense of where to start. Granted, it could be the car was stolen, it could very well be non-alchohol related, etc... time will tell.

I hope it's a case of stolen car, but would not be surprised to find out it was a drunken sailor/marine or dependent. Before anyone starts, I'm not anti-military bashing, I was military, but anyone who has been in the military over here knows dang well that it's very well more likely than the car being stolen. That being said, it's unfortunate that this will probably recieve MORE media attention than other similar cases reported...
dennis0bauer at 03:29 PM JST - 6th April

jkoffman maybe it means Y? foreigner in Japan? This will be offcourse more in the news, because when a japanese does it he was just drunk.
Yelnats at 03:33 PM JST - 6th April

Mini cars start with the letter "A" Cars do get stolen here a lot. People leave there cars running and bounce into stores all the time. My friends was stolen, and he is not a Y plate.
BTADT at 04:16 PM JST - 6th April

Yeah, like it could have been the letter と and witnesses mistook it for a cursive and stylish Y maaaaaan...
CMEANDU26 at 07:18 AM JST - 7th April

I am sure by now they would have found out who the owner is and if they were driving the car. I wonder how the story is going to get spun so that they can try and blame on of the U.S. Military personnel.
skipthesong at 11:15 AM JST - 7th April

What is the "Y" for? does it really mean Yankee?
Mookoo at 01:54 PM JST - 7th April

Police have a member of the American Marines suspected of being the driver in for questioning. Sorry to scoop JT ;)
kwilkins21 at 08:32 PM JST - 7th April

Some of you people need to use common sense! 6 am in the morning! The driver was definately drinking or maybe drunk!(Just finished partying) If he had hit the three people head on at full speed then at least 1 of them would have died! He wasn't going full speed and had a slow reaction at breaking and the girl with the broken leg was the one closest to the car, the guy with the broken jaw obviously realized the car was coming and braced for it thus trying too jump and his face hit the windshield, the person with the broken hip was hit strong enough to be knocked off their feet but not bracing for a fall on your hip will break the bone!

The driver was scared because he would have spent the remainder of his life in jail if caught drinking and driving. Now, they can't prove he was drinking so he will serve perhaps 3 years in a Japanese jail at the most and pay restitution and then probably 5 to 10 years in military prison for being AWOL during his time in Japanese jail and causing an even greater straining relationship between the Okinawan's, Japanese government and the US forces in Japan! 8 to 13 years is better than a 20/20 equalling 40 years he would have spent if caught drinking! Obviously he was in the wrong but the idiots crossing a street before looking both ways learned the hard way instead of their parents teaching them during childhood that you watch out for cars because things happen!