15-year-old girl killed after moped collides with truck

Thursday 19th November, 09:53 AM JST

SAITAMA —

A 15-year-old girl was killed and a 17-year-old boy was knocked unconscious after the pair was hit by a truck while they were riding a moped through an intersection in Niiza City, Saitama Prefecture, on Wednesday afternoon.

According to police, the truck was traveling straight through the intersection when it hit the moped while the teens were making a right turn. Authorities are questioning the driver of the truck, 64-year-old Shouichi Genma, and believe either the truck driver or the two riders illegally crossed through the traffic signal.

The boy is in a stable condition in hospital.

Wire reports

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Latest 15 of 47 Total Comments Show All

DXXJP at 04:47 PM JST - 19th November

I think the truck was at fault just by the fact that the scooter with 4 people would still get threw the intersection faster than a truck from a standstill. Like posted above I think the truck was in motion illegally past the red or before the green.

PS yellow in japan means 5 more.
stirfry at 05:03 PM JST - 19th November

and believe either the truck driver or the two riders illegally crossed through the traffic signal.

wow...narrowed the choices down that quickly, huh ? investigative geniuses
stirfry at 05:08 PM JST - 19th November

in japan, whether you're driving, riding, or walking, always wait 3 beats before moving forward after the signals change, because EVERY japanese driver runs red lights
GW at 05:13 PM JST - 19th November

Sad about the girl for sure. Some mentioned defensive driving, that needs to apply to ALL drivers whether 2 or 4wheeled! Another pointed out the short duration of yellow lights, this is absiolutely true at many intersections, I have flet like I saw Xmas lights as I watch green yellow then red before I get through some intersections, so MAYBE the 1st driver cudnt help it but there is way to often a bunch more who run the red.

Biggest problem is the keystone arent into preventative policing only reactionary, ie they dont ticket drivers for any violations excedpt on rare occasions, the keystones mostly wait for accidents to happen then respond. I have stopped at 2 accidents & at neither were the keystones even remotely interested in what I had seen, so the mrs points out that thats why japanese rarely stop at accidents because they just end up in the way.........
elbudamexicano at 07:03 PM JST - 19th November

Big truck vs. tiny moped is certain death for moped rider/s. Very simple, the 17 year old boy is just lucky to be alive, too bad about his dead 15 year old girlfriend. RIP.
Disillusioned at 07:26 PM JST - 19th November
Teenagers doubling on a scooter + Kamikaze truck driver = death

Pretty easy math. No surprises here. The only surprise is, it doesn't happen more often cos the cops do bugger all to prevent it.
- For the author: A 'moped' is a motorized bicycle that has pedals to start the engine and I have never seen one in Japan. Whereas, the vehicle they were riding is simply called 'death on two wheels'.
IvanCoughalot at 08:32 PM JST - 19th November

believe either the truck driver or the two riders illegally crossed through the traffic signal.

Another dose of investigative genius from the keystones. Either one party in the accident or the only other party. And here was me thinking it was the work of The Riddler.

Why do they bother with these futile, vacuous statements at all?
BurakuminDes at 09:05 PM JST - 19th November

R.I.P. to the poor girl. Children should NOT be allowed on motorbikes here - it's not Thailand for God's sake.
temporaryVisa at 09:19 PM JST - 19th November

There does seem to be a culture of running red lights in Japan. I think most people in Japan know that when the light just turned green there's always some guy racing by at a ridiculous speed because his light just turned red. It seemed this time it was a truck driver. Poor kids.
saru_au at 10:07 PM JST - 19th November

more than 1 on a 50cc scooter is illegal in Japan.

truck driver probably druged up to his eyeballs.

not a good result
BurakuminDes at 10:41 PM JST - 19th November

There does seem to be a culture of running red lights in Japan.

Too true. Something needs to be done about this - I never go a day here without seeing people running reds at insane speeds. Japanese authorities should study and adopt the system we have in Sydney, and other cities in Aus: Run a red light - get a photo automatically taken and a big penalty and fine in the mail a week later. Japanese people would be outraged - but it saves lives.
saborichan at 03:20 AM JST - 20th November

Yep, it galls me to find myself run through a yellow as it appears and watch the next three drivers behind me follow through the ensuing red.
Fadamor at 03:39 AM JST - 20th November

If they're lucky, there's a security camera nearby that caught the accident on tape. All this guessing about who ran the light is pointless without facts.
bushlover at 06:48 AM JST - 20th November

I'm willing to bet that the kid turned into traffic without looking. I've seen it all too often. The truck driver also was probably going too fast also but we shouldn't expect heavy trucks to be able to stop on a dime either. It's called defensive driving to watch out for things like that but like I said, few do. Forethought doesn't exist here. Only the 後の祭り.
numbskull at 10:33 AM JST - 20th November

thundercat: Numbskull, if the bike was a 50cc scooter (as it almost certainly was in light of the fact that this kid was only 17) then the brakes would not work with two passengers nor would it be able to accelerate fast enough to get out of the way of oncoming traffic.

True that accelation and braking speed would be affected, but not so much that it really caused this particular accident or made it unavoidable I think.

As for being able to accelerate enough to avoid the accident, are you joking? The thing is under 50cc. Its not going accelerate fast enough to avoid death with even one single 70 pound weakling on it! And it does not appear that they overshot the stoplight for lack of braking power. They were turning right. Even overloaded, if accidentally passed the stop line so much that the driver decided he better just continue on and make a right turn, he was going way too fast regardless. I have driven overloaded vehicles before. You learn to deal with it. If you can't and you speed that much, you are an accident waiting to happen in optimal conditions anyway.