92-year-old driver ordered to pay 140 million yen over fatal Tokyo crash

Oct 27, 2023 | News On Japan

TOKYO - A 92-year-old former top bureaucrat sentenced to five years in prison over a fatal Tokyo car accident in 2019 was ordered Friday to pay around 140 million yen ($932,000) to bereaved family members of the accident that sparked a debate on elderly drivers in rapidly graying Japan.

The Tokyo District Court ruled that Kozo Iizuka, a former chief of the now-defunct Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, had demonstrated "unilateral and significant negligence" in the accident by continuing to press the gas pedal.

According to the final ruling, Iizuka ran a red light after mistaking the gas pedal for the brake, hitting and killing Mana Matsunaga, 31, and her 3-year-old daughter Riko, as they were cycling through a crosswalk in Tokyo's Ikebukuro area on April 19, 2019. Nine others were injured in the incident. ...continue reading

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