Reckless Driving Causing Family Tragedy: Tokyo High Court Upholds 18-Year Prison Sentence

2024-02-26 11:07:33

In 2017, on the Tomei Expressway in Oimachi, Kanagawa Prefecture, he was charged with violating the Motor Vehicle Driving Punishment Act (dangerous driving resulting in death or injury) for causing a family of four to stop in a wagon due to reckless driving, causing death or injury in a rear-end collision with a following vehicle. On the 26th, the Tokyo High Court upheld the Yokohama District Court’s judgment of the first instance sentence of 18 years in prison and dismissed the defendant’s appeal.

◆Supports the trial court for “obstructing the movement of a wagon”

Joint court building where the Tokyo High Court is located

The defense argued that he was not driving in a way that would obstruct the movement of the van, but Presiding Judge Akira Ando stated in his ruling that the defendant’s car suddenly accelerated, decelerated, or drove in a lane in an attempt to obstruct the movement of the van. The court supported the judgment of the first instance, which found that the changes had been made repeatedly, saying, “In light of the rules of logic and experience, it cannot be called unreasonable.” He also said that the trial court’s decision, which recognized a causal relationship between obstructive driving and the death or injury, “cannot be said to be erroneous.”

Defendant Ishibashi, who appeared in court in a suit, sat in a chair in front of the witness stand and listened to the verdict, occasionally turning his head or making gestures as if fanning himself at the ceiling. Before he left court, he turned to the presiding judge and judges and said, “Wait until I get out.”

◆Remand for “violation of pre-trial proceedings”

The Yokohama District Court judgment in 2018, which was tried in a jury trial, recognized the conviction of dangerous driving resulting in death or injury and imposed a sentence of 18 years in prison, but the Tokyo High Court judgment in 2019 found that the pre-trial summary procedure had violated the law. The judgment is set aside. After being remanded, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison in June 2022 at a lay judge trial.

According to the ruling, in June 2017, in a parking area, Yoshihisa Hagiyama, then 45, of Shizuoka City criticized the driver’s parking position, got angry and chased following him. Hagiyama and his wife Yuka, 39, who got out of the car were killed when they were hit by a truck following them, and their two daughters inside suffered minor injuries.

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◆Trend to bottom out even following “severe punishment for cheating”

In the wake of an accident that killed and injured four members of a family on the Tomei Expressway in Oimachi, Kanagawa Prefecture, a revised road traffic law that included stricter penalties for reckless driving was enacted in June 2020, blocking the passage of other vehicles on expressways. Although sudden braking or sudden lane changes are now punishable by up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 1 million yen, reckless driving has not disappeared.

According to a survey conducted annually since 2018 by Zurich Insurance (Tokyo), out of approximately 2,200 drivers, the number of respondents who said they had experienced aggressive driving decreased from 70% in 2018 to 60% in 2019. . However, from 2020 to 2023, it has remained flat at around 50%. In a 2023 survey, when asked whether they thought reckless driving had decreased due to the revised Road Traffic Act, a total of 48% of respondents said they “didn’t think so” or “somewhat disagreed.”

◆“The spread of drive recorders is also effective.”

Kazunori Shidoji, a professor of traffic psychology at Kyushu University, analyzed that, “There are still a certain number of people who get angry when they are cut into, and cannot control their anger and drive erratically.” He says that reckless driving is more difficult to control than speeding, which can be measured using equipment, and says, “In addition to steadily educating people regarding the dangers of reckless driving, it would be effective to spread the use of drive recorders.” . (Nakasangake)


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