Father, daughter, 5, thrown out of car after accident on Kyushu expressway; girl dies

Friday 02nd January, 01:18 PM JST

FUKUOKA —

A 5-year-old girl was thrown out of the car she was traveling in on the Kyushu Expressway and was then hit by a car behind, killing her on Thursday. Naoki Tachibana, 19, was driving along an expressway in Dazaifu City at 3 p.m. when his car hit the guard rail on the left side of the road and his father, Masahiro, 53, and younger sister, Kaede, 5, sitting in the back were thrown from the vehicle. Masahiro survived with minor injuries but Kaede was hit by an oncoming vehicle, and died shortly after.

Fukuoka police believe the pair may not have been wearing seatbelts. They also said the road was straight at the scene of the accident, but that snow had fallen intermittently on Thursday. The road between the Dazaifu and Chikushino interchanges was closed for about three hours after the accident.

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Latest 15 of 46 Total Comments Show All

LIBERTAS at 03:12 AM JST - 3rd January

Seatbelt ad in the UK in the 70's: "Clunk, Click, Every Trip." can someone make that with cute sounds for Japan?
albaleo at 03:21 AM JST - 3rd January

UnagiDon, if you were really serious about car safety, you'd recommend that all car occupants wear crash helmets too. But somehow I don't imagine such a law being passed, in any developed country.

I sense an element of "pitchforker justice" in many of the comments here. Whether the girl's death was due to not wearing a seatbelt seems immaterial. Many just want to vent their rage on those who don't follow a Western nanny-state mentality. Am I to take it that bad driving can be excused if we all wear seat belts? (And on other threads on this site, I can be guaranteed that Japanese are being accused of acting like sheep.)
Good_Jorb at 03:59 AM JST - 3rd January

Am I to take it that bad driving can be excused if we all wear seat belts?

It is not an excuse for bad driving, but certianly an act of negligence on the father's behalf.

As for it being a case imposing Western nanny-state mentality, tell me about it, cars should be able to drive at whatever speed they like, not nanny-state imposed speed limits. They should be able to drive on whatever side of the street they choose, not which side nanny-state tells them to drive. They should be able to choose to obey or not to obey nanny-state created signage like a stop sign or a red light. In conclusion, no speed limits, no yellow lines, no stop signs or red light and damn the state for exercising common sense.
Molenir at 04:23 AM JST - 3rd January

I don't think the state should be involved in forcing people to wear a seatbelt. However, I have no problem with requiring children to wear them. Its one thing to choose to do stupid things as an adult, its quite another to be so irresponsible, as to allow a child to be in a car without wearing a seatbelt.

To me, this is negligence. The girl died because her father didn't ensure she was buckled up. If this had happened in the states, he would likely be prosecuted.
rurika at 05:44 AM JST - 3rd January

I don't think the state should be involved in forcing people to wear a seatbelt.

Yes they should. Because when you don't wear a seatbelt, you can also crush the other occupants of the car in an accident.

Japan needs a hard-hitting campaign with gory images combined with drastic police checks.
elbudamexicano at 07:48 AM JST - 3rd January

Most Japanese are idiots when it comes to driving, once they are behind the wheel of a car, their IQ must shoot down to a level of 19? These parents are responsible for the death of this little 5 year old, period! RIP little Kaede chan!
jwills79 at 12:45 PM JST - 3rd January

I see people in Japan riding in their cars all the time without seat belts. I even see drivers holding their children at the sametime. It's amazing common sense goes out the window these days.
Betting at 10:47 PM JST - 3rd January

"Nanda, I somehow doubt Japan's low highway death rate is a result of their lacks seat belt laws. More I would say it is because usually, cars can only inch along going bumper to bumper. Why not buckle up and reduce it even more?".

Statistically they have a low death rate because they play with those statistics. I think that in Japan if you die of causes related to a car accident within three months (I could be wrong on that time limit though) you are put down as a traffic statistic. In most other countries even if you die ten years later or whenever, but the cause of that death was a car accident, then you are a traffic statistic. Now wonder they can claim a low traffic fatality rate.
nigelboy at 11:01 AM JST - 5th January

Statistically they have a low death rate because they play with those statistics. I think that in Japan if you die of causes related to a car accident within three months (I could be wrong on that time limit though) you are put down as a traffic statistic. In most other countries even if you die ten years later or whenever, but the cause of that death was a car accident, then you are a traffic statistic. Now wonder they can claim a low traffic fatality rate.

According to International Road Traffic and Accident Data Base, the death by traffic accident is defined within 30 days of the accident. Based on this unified criteria, there are only 4 OECD countries that had lower rate than that of Japan.
browny1 at 05:17 PM JST - 5th January

nigel - is that so? Glad to hear it because it must have changed in the not so long past.

Until that recent change, deaths occuring after 24 HOURS had passed were NOT attributed to road accident. A truly classic ONLY IN JAPAN.

And the tragic death of the little girl should be refarded as manslaughter in the least. The parent not only has a duty of care, the law stipulates the compulsory wearing of seat belts - front or back - and the compulsory fitting and use of an approved child restaining seat for a child of 5 years.

There is no gray area in this matter at all. Just a sorrowful lack of gray matter.
cwhite at 10:16 PM JST - 5th January

if I had it my way I would make roll cages and 5 point seat belts compulsory
joffy at 12:41 AM JST - 6th January

this is all too bad
nigelboy at 10:06 AM JST - 6th January
"nigel - is that so? Glad to hear it because it must have changed in the not so long past.

Until that recent change, deaths occuring after 24 HOURS had passed were NOT attributed to road accident. A truly classic ONLY IN JAPAN."

Since 1993, the government has kept three separate figures which are
1. Death within 24 hrs
2. Death within 30 days
3. Death within 1 year
http://www.npa.go.jp/toukei/koutuu48/H19.Dead.pdf

What I was talking about in the above are the "unified criteria" by IRTAD which used the "Death within 30 days" which ranked Japan 5th lowest among the OECD countries.
whatadick at 02:40 PM JST - 6th January

i think that we should always be looking for practical ways to keep on decreasing the number of road deaths every year. the compulsory use of seatbelts for all passengers is a good start and in a coutry with low speed-limits this should save many lives. I am sure that if the two passengers in the back of the vehicle were wearing seatbelts then this tragedy could have be avoided. i think that the two adults in this vehicle are definately responsible for the death of this poor child.

drivers in japan definitely need to be more responsible. i see so many people with kids and pets jumping around in the car. even if you are a "careful" driver you cannot trust everyone else to be so. i know that in some countries (and i am not sure about japan) it is the responsibility of the driver to make sure that everyone is wearing a seatbelt before driving anywhere. failure to do so is a punishible offence. in some cases the driver can be criminally charged for any deaths resulting from his negligence.

also, i have even seen people driving around with sunglasses on...at night! why? why? oh, why is this necessary? and drivers with the seat so far back they can hardly see over the steering wheel? again - why? all the tv/dvd screens are surely a distraction to the driver as well.

come on guys...just try thinking about what you're doing occasionally.
whitepocky at 01:20 PM JST - 7th January

As for it being a case imposing Western nanny-state mentality, tell me about it, cars should be able to drive at whatever speed they like, not nanny-state imposed speed limits.

Goodjorb, Nanny-state imposed speed limits were introduced to curb the the carnage (read accident rate) on the roads. It was further increased as the oil shortage/fuel crisis during the early 70's.