Man dies in Osaka hit-and-run after being dragged for 3 kms

Tuesday 21st October, 02:46 PM JST

OSAKA —

A 30-year-old man died after being hit and dragged by a car for about 3 kilometers in downtown Osaka in the early hours of Tuesday. Police are hunting for the driver of the car, described as a red- or black-colored station wagon, on suspicion of driving away after the accident and also of negligence resulting in the man’s death.

The victim was identified as Gentaro Suzuki, an employee of a real estate company who resided in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.

Suzuki was hit by the car at around 4:15 a.m. Tuesday at a crossing on a national highway in Osaka’s downtown Kita Ward. He was found dead on a street in Fukushima Ward around 10 minutes later, the police said.

It is suspected that the car dragged Suzuki for about 3 km after hitting him, they said.

Suzuki was apparently hit from the right side while he and a 40-year-old colleague were walking on a road without a crosswalk, the police said. They were en route to JR Osaka Station after drinking from Monday night through early Tuesday. The colleague reported the incident to a nearby police box.

Investigators have found blood marks and blood stained tire tracks along the 3-km distance, the police said.

Wire reports

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Latest 15 of 58 Total Comments Show All

fatloser at 06:39 AM JST - 22nd October

READ it BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was dragged !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20081022TDY02309.htm
Altria at 09:22 AM JST - 22nd October

Wow, I saw the long red smear on the tv news this morning during breakfast...
mikihouse at 10:06 AM JST - 22nd October

hit and run gets a lesser sentence in Japan compared to drunk driving resulting to accident or death. And of course, Osaka is known for hit and run...its the most notorious place for hit and run in Japan actually followed by either Kanagawa or Saitama. Anyway, the morning said that they plan to charge the driver if found with voluntary manslaugther as record shows that the car is travelling at a speed of less than 40 kph so the guy may have lived if the driver just stopped and called an ambulance.
zaichik at 10:14 AM JST - 22nd October

Poor sod. However, death might be preferable to being left in a coma with severe head injuries and little prospect of recovery, as in another Japanese RTA (not hit and run, admittedly) case I know of...
tmarie at 10:17 AM JST - 22nd October

But if he was dragged isn't it possible that the driver didn't see him? Drunk guy walks into a car being driven by a drunk guy. Drunk driver thinks he kit a curb and keeps driving... I don't think we can place the blame 100% on the driver just yet. For all we know this guy was playing chicken with the car after a few too many drinks.
fatloser at 11:07 AM JST - 22nd October

He got hit across the street from a big POLICE station and dragged past at least 2 KOBAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He crossed the street where there was no cross walk and on a curve. The only way to safely cross the street there is to use the HUGE pedestrian brigde.
Balefire at 12:20 PM JST - 22nd October

tmarie, the TV news reports were saying that, judging from the marks on the road, the police believed that the driver was zig-zagging, presumably to try to rid him/herself of the body caught in the car's undercarriage.

The video clips of some of the marks that I saw this morning certainly did seem to indicate purposeful zig-zagging rather than, say, random drunken drifting.
Nessie at 04:05 PM JST - 22nd October

But if he was dragged isn't it possible that the driver didn't see him?

Yeah, he must've just thought his parking brake was on. Not! I guess because it was a van, the visbility is reduced and the weight is less detectable. But it's farfetched to think you wouldn't notice such a weight.
temporaryVisa at 05:00 PM JST - 22nd October

It happened on a national highway on a 3 km stretch in downtown Osaka and not a single CCTV camera captured the incident?
KaptainKichigai at 08:32 PM JST - 22nd October

Dudes were on a highway, no crosswalk, drunk in the drunkest hours of the morning? What was the speed limit on this highway? How in the world could a driver doing 80 km an hour avoid hitting this idiot? And then what? an immediate arrest for being in the right place(highway with car) at the wrong time(idiot drunk crossing said highway)? Perhaps if the laws werent so ridiculous regarding accidents involving pedestrians or bicycles, the driver would have stopped.
elbudamexicano at 06:42 AM JST - 23rd October

Dear "Temporary Visa"(It happened on a national highway on a 3 km stretch in downtown Osaka and not a single CCTV camera captured the incident?) Actually, it was caught on a CCTV camera and now they are looking for a black station wagon (with many dents and lots of blood marks) I presume.
dammit at 07:21 AM JST - 23rd October

Why should blood streaks on the road prove that he was under the car? Limbs have been known to trail you know, sometimes dragging along the floor and rubbing on the surface of the road, causing that unusual effect of bleeding on the road. Not to mention that liquids generally travel down, due to some outrageous concept known as gravity. Where else would the blood end up if not on the road?
tmarie at 11:14 AM JST - 23rd October

Can someone tell me where the guy was hit? I know his body was found by Gusto - I live in the area but reports keep changing. First his way in front of Osaka station, then he was on a highway. Was he on highway 2 or Hanshin??
WilliB at 05:47 PM JST - 24th October

Nessie:

" Not! I guess because it was a van, the visbility is reduced and the weight is less detectable. "

They said on TV it was an Odyssey (same as our car, eek). It has also pretty low ground clearance; a horrible thought of srubbing a man to death underneath.
frontandcentre at 06:15 PM JST - 27th October

KaptainKichigai - there is no excuse for the driver not stopping if he / she was aware that they'd hit someone. Just because this person MAY have been drunk and on the road doesn't mean that the driver has no responsibility to avoid them.

Chances are that the driver was also drunk, or involved in something else illegal, and panicked. Reprehensible behaviour - and shame on you for condoning it