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5 year-old boy killed after camper van flips over in Niigata

12 Comments

A five year-old boy died after the camper van he was riding in crashed into a car and flipped over on the Ban-etsu Expressway in Niigata City on Sunday.

According to police, the accident occurred at around 12:20 p.m. Sankei Shimbun reported that the back right tire of the camper van blew out, causing the vehicle to flip onto its side and slide into the oncoming traffic's lane. The camper van crashed into a station wagon.

There were six people riding in the camper van, one of whom was 5-year-old Rentaro Kuroda, from Higashi-Osaka City. Police said he suffered a cervical spine injury and was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. The other five passengers in the camper van -- all members of an extended family -- sustained injuries ranging from minor to severe.

The six had been visiting Fukushima for sightseeing and had been returning to Osaka at the time of the accident.

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12 Comments
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What a horrible end to the little one's life, and just as awful for the survivors.

I've been looking for a camper here, but almost none of them have rear seatbelts.

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All. I wonder whether he was wearing a seat belt or in a child seat. Often rare here.

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cervical spine injury

No seat belt for that type of injury, so sad, RIP little boy.

People wear your seat belt!

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The big question seatbelt buckled?

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there really is no proof from this article that a seat would have saved him. if he wasn't wearing his seatbelt then i doubt if all the others were wearing theirs, too. it was just a tragic accident.

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All. I wonder whether he was wearing a seat belt or in a child seat. Often rare here.

Most of these things don't have rear seat belts to start with, which speaks volumes about road safety awareness. Oh, and there's this, from 2008:

In Japan, penalties will be limited to violators on expressways, because a Cabinet Office survey shows a lack of public support for penalizing people for not buckling up on surface roads, (National Police Agency official Akihisa) Miyauchi said.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/04/05/national/back-seat-riders-to-be-bound-by-seat-belt-law/#.VZpEqUKDndk

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How can a blown rear tyre cause a car to flip over?

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Sadly - at his age he didn't need to buckle up his seatbelt.

Because, as dictated by Law, he should have been securely restrained in an approved child safety seat.

But you can't tell many people anything.

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I never ever heard of a blow out flipping a vehicle. I confiding in a racing driver friend. At high speed he says it can happen.

What were the other 5 doing in the back of the vehicle? Playing trump at the dinner table?

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I've been looking for a camper here, but almost none of them have rear seatbelts.

I spent over year looking for a camper and finally bought a Winnebago. All the campers have seatbelts. Each camper is rated for x amount of passengers. When it gets inspected for its "Shakin". They look at each seat belt.

Now whether or not they take them out after the inspection is a different story.

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Ah_soJUL. 06, 2015 - 04:12PM JST All. I wonder whether he was wearing a seat belt or in a child seat. Often rare here.

Yup. Still so common to see children bouncing around the back seat or mothers, perhaps belted in, holding a young child.

In the U.S. crash reports alway note whether the injured or killed were using seat belts and, typically, those killed or more seriously injured were not.

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They said on the news that people in campers are required to wear seat belts/secured in child seats if they are in the back when it is moving, but it was believed that he was not strapped in. Not really surprising seeing as how lots of parents here don't bother buckling their kids in when they are in a car. I can only imagine the number would be higher for things like camper vans.

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