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A woman and her son were killed when the car they were traveling in crashed into a wall near the entrance to a tunnel in Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture, early Sunday morning.
According to police, the accident occurred at around 2 a.m. The car, driven by Mitsugu Otake, 45, slammed into the left wall as it entered the tunnel, Sankei Shimbun reported.
Police said that Otake's wife Yumi, 44, and the couple's second oldest son Hiroki, 13, who were both sitting in the back seat, sustained heavy injuries. They were taken to hospital where they died shortly after arrival.
Otake suffered a chest injury and remains in hospital. Police quoted him as saying that things became blurred just before the accident.
© Japan Today
9 Comments
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kiwiboy
If the front seat driver survived, then my bets are on the two in the back didn't have seat belts on.
When will Japan start taking them seriously? Everywhere else Japan is anzen daiichi this and that, yet they don't care about getting in unbelted?
What's more, where are all the thousands and thousands of people who lost family members/friends/children/parents needlessly because of it? Why aren't they forcing a heightened awareness to ensure it never happens again?
Shoganai janai yo.
Mirai Hayashi
Driving at 2AM and things suddenly went blurry....Sounds like he fell asleep. A mistake he'll regret for the rest of his life.
Ah_so
Sounds like the front seats contained the father and eldest son. No doubt they had seat belts on, those in the back did not.
As kiwiboy mentions, there seems to be little understanding of the risks of not belting up in the back. They would probably certainly still be alive today if they had.
justbcuzisay
Good reminder to all, don't let your loved ones drive sleepy late at night. The odds are stacked against you, and no one should have to live with the pain of losing their wife and child in such a preventable accident.
Derek Jackson
So sad to hear of such a preventable tragedy. Drowsy driving and no seat belts? Bad combination.
smithinjapan
I'm also betting that the people in the back seat didn't have belts on, but ultimately we're talking about a guy who likely fell asleep at the wheel (even if things only 'got blurry', you don't slam into a wall like that. Scrape against it maybe, or hit it at a reduced speed because your vision has become impaired). RIP to the victims.
almxxx
Another result of cars not having automatic braking.
Tahoochi
Agree with many above; they most likely were not wearing their seatbelts in the back... and considering it was 2:00 AM, they were probably sleeping in the back seats (Other reports say they were in a wagon-type vehicle). They didn't know what hit'em... RIP