Driver arrested after car hits schoolchildren at crossing in Fukui

Another dumb driver on the road, but I am thankful that none of the children got killed this time.

texting no doubt

So, what was he doing? Texting? Reading the newspaper? Watching TV on his NAVI? Checking his make up? Every damn day I see drivers 'multi-tasking' behind the wheel and it annoys the hell out of me! These selfish and inconsiderate donkey's butts do not give a shit about anybody else using the roads and the regulars incidents like this prove it! Be able to drive a car is a privilege and not a right! And, it's long over due for the J-flops to get on roads and remind these bastards of such! Running red lights, going through stop signs, speeding in side streets, not wearing seat belts, having NAVIs tweaked so they can watch TV while driving, using cell phones, not stopping at pedestrian crossings. It's a bloody disgrace!!!

He took his eyes off the traffic lights? To look at what? Did he also take his eyes off the children that he was about to hit? The stupidity of traffic laws here continue to astound me. Yellow and red do NOT mean speed up, the mean caution and stop, respectively. Imagine if the police actually did their jobs outside the yearly traffic safety week. Hope this guy's red-light run was worth the likely 5000 man-en he'll have to pay for each family to avoid suits.

This country is full stupid idiots when it comes to imbeciles doing everything but keeping their eyes on the road!! Poor kids!! I hope they lock up this idiot for a good long time!!

His insurance will cover everything. He will do the "Moushiwakearimasen 5 second bow" and it's business as usual. Nothing will change. Just this morning I tried to cross the street accompanied by my own students near my school and no cars would stop for us, we had to wait until the last car passed - and that was WITH a road guard!!!!! @Disillusioned: You are SPOT ON! I could not have said it better!

The stupidity of traffic laws here continue to astound me. Yellow and red do NOT mean speed up, the mean caution and stop, respectively.

There is nothing wrong with the traffic laws regarding red and yellow lights. Existing traffic laws are not at fault when someone decides to ignore them.

Imagine if the police actually did their jobs outside the yearly traffic safety week.

Do you have any actual data to back up your suggestion that the police are doing less ticketing for ignoring traffic lights at times other than traffic safety week?

The only person at fault here is the individual who hit the kids. It is not the traffic signal's fault, it is not the traffic law's fault and it certainly is not the police's fault.

Slumdog,

I pause when the light goes green here, because too many people sail through red lights with impunity.

They're allowed all kinds of transgressions with their bicycles growing up, and continue their own interpretation of the rules when they get their license.

And yes, the cops do damn all but drive around with their lights flashing, blind to traffic violations from children bouncing around in cars, to bullying pedestrians trying to cross the road.

Like Disillusioned said, people watching frickin' TV while driving?! In most countries you'd get your driver butt spanked for that (ie fined harshly) but I guess people here can't live without missing a second of "waido" shows or the other forms of quality programming. In any case, that stuff should be reprimanded for real.

slumdog, you cannot be for real. Have you ever been near to a road in Japan? Have you ever been to Japan? If you had, you too would have noticed the absolute lack of respect for traffic laws the Japanese so efficiently show.

why do people drive so ignorant these days.

Hey it's cold in the morning, perhaps he was turning his heater on...

But honestly who cares? He should be more careful!

And yes, the cops do damn all but drive around with their lights flashing, blind to traffic violations from children bouncing around in cars, to bullying pedestrians trying to cross the road.

Does this mean you have actually seen police ignore these things? If not, are you expecting the police to arrest people for things they are not witnesses to? Obviously people ignore traffic rules, the subject of this article is a case in point. However, if you are going to suggest the police are ignoring crimes, you should be able to do better than your own empirical evidence.

This crime is the driver's fault, no one else's.

Almost every car near my home run yellow and red lights. I almost never see a car stop for pedestrian crosswalks. The only thing I see j-cops checking is seatbelt violations, which they can do by just stepping outside their koban, and setting up a mini-sting. If they moved a few meters down the road, they could see an endless stream of cars running red lights. I don't understand their priorities.

car runs...

Some of the easy and inexpensive solution to slowing down these cars to to add speed bumps near the school or in the narrow streets where children and elderly people walk. This will make the streets near school much safer.

All the fingerpointing aside, i hope the girl be allright.

The thing is, police being there or not being there would not have prevented this particular accident. The man was not looking at the road. he did not run a red light. He did not ignore it. He did not know it even existed. He was doing something else. That is why the fault goes to him.

This driver deserves to have the book thrown at him.

However, on the red light issue, I think that the Japanese signals are EXTREMELY badly designed. A few times while driving in Japan I've been unable to see the traffic lights because there's a truck in front of me (or even two or three cars in front of me). Even with a generous following distance the lights are often too low to allow following drivers to allow drivers to see them over the trucks in front.

I always stop rather than risking running a red light, but on several occasions I've seen trucks go through on the amber to be followed by one or two cars going through on the red because they simply can't see the traffic lights and are assuming that if the truck is going then it must still be green. This would be an okay assumption... except that trucks seem to treat the green light as green, the amber as green, and often the "just turned red" as green too!

slumdog, you cannot be for real.

Why exactly can I 'not be for real'? Because I believe this accident is the fault of the man not looking where he was going? Read what I wrote more carefully. The police did not cause this accident. The police could not have prevented this accident. Only the man not looking where he should have been could have prevented this accident.

Have you ever been near to a road in Japan?

Just curious, do you ask this kind of silly question when you argue with people in your own country? Do you assume people are not from your country just because they see things differently than you? No? Why do it here? I described the situation as I know it pretty accurately. If you have cold, hard data that shows something different. Why not show it instead of asking meaningless rhetorical questions?

Drivers would be more careful if there were a robust and visible police presence. Motorists do make careless mistakes (not much of an extenuating factor, really), but nearly all of the red-light violations I have observed over the years were of the flagrant, not the distracted, kind.

Drivers would be more careful if there were a robust and visible police presence.

It couldn't hurt.

Totally agree with Brian's ... Just the other night in mejiro I was at large intersection waiting to cross and car sailed thru intersection on red light blasting his horn so car did not crash into him who had green light to turn. In Australia we have red light cameras on large number of intersections and if you go thru on red you get fine around$500 And loss of points. Same goes for speeding... 3 or 4 times and lose license I think the government needs to have the police doing their job and actually policing and fining people for running red lights etc and then road toll would be reduced considerably here. Also bringing in cameras and fining all these arseholes driving around with no commonsense would help.... I could go on but the people who can bring about change here sit on their hands and do nothing

I see these Koban boys, hunking outbinside their little box, alternatively standing outside with ther sticks, trying their best to look tough. What is weird though, is that they don't move a finger when some drivers run the red light, 3 steps outside the koban. Why is that? Too much work? Not their jurisdiction? The police here could do a much better job of enforcing laws that are in place. Kids on the dashboard, watching TV while operating a motor vehicle, listening to music while riding a bike surely must be illegal, no?

What is weird though, is that they don't move a finger when some drivers run the red light, 3 steps outside the koban.

Are you saying you have seen them actually witness someone go through a red light and do nothing about it? Did you say anything to them? I would have.

" The only person at fault here is the individual who hit the kids. It is not the traffic signal's fault, it is not the traffic law's fault…"

Indeed, blame the person, not the inanimate object. Apply the same concept in other criminal acts as well.

One thing that deeply concerns me is the commonly held belief that raising one's hand ensures one's safety. Nonsense! Both children and adults need to take responsibility for their own safety first by LOOKING BOTH WAYS BEFORE ATTEMPTING to cross any street. AND, drivers must stop BEFORE the light turns red! As a driver, I'm extremely cautious behind the wheel. People are too careless about their own safety.