Sep 27, 2017 (rocketnews24.com) - Shibuya's Scramble Intersection is one of Tokyo's most famous landmarks. Located directly outside Shibuya Station, where a number of train and subway lines converge, the intersection serves as the gateway to the neighborhood's hundreds of shops, restaurants, and clubs, and the mass of people that makes its way across every time the walk sign comes on is a sight to see.
But the display of concentrated urban energy turned terrifying on the night of September 25 when, just before 10 p.m., a van ran a red light, speeding through the intersection while it was filled with pedestrians, with a police car in hot pursuit.
While running a red light presents a danger to pedestrians under any circumstances, it's an even more perilous scenario at the Scramble Intersection, where traffic from all directions is shut down when the walk sign comes on to allow for diagonal crossing. And the van didn't just barrel through the intersection once, either. As shown in the surveillance footage below, about 10 seconds after running the red light the driver makes a U-turn and comes through the intersection again, which had refilled with people thinking the danger had passed.
The chase began when the van fled from the police as the driver was being questioned by the police during a traffic stop. After the van's second pass through the intersection, though, the officers deemed the pursuit too dangerous to continue The authorities are currently searching for the car and its owner.
Thankfully, no pedestrians were struck by the cars. However, one of the cars was struck by a pedestrian. As the van made its second pass through the Scramble Intersection, most people scattered, but one man, dressed in a green shirt and tan pants, can be seen turning towards the danger and giving the van a swift kick along its driver's side as it passes by.
