Man and Woman Drunk and Fatal Accident… Why 24-year-old Woman Lied: “I’m the Driver”?

The black Mercedes Benz driving on the district road late at night was clearly driving in a strange manner. On a road with a speed limit of 40 km/h, it snaked along at a speed of over 80 km/h. When it collided with a bicycle traveling ahead, the man on the bicycle lost his life when his head hit the ground hard.

On November 17, the Shakujii Police Station of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested Tomoya Fujiwara, 23, a company employee living in Asaka City, Saitama Prefecture, for driving a car while intoxicated and causing a fatal accident. He is suspected of violating the Motor Vehicle Driving Punishment Law (vehicular manslaughter). The tragic accident occurred just after 2 am on October 17.

The accident took place at an intersection about 550 meters north of Oizumigakuen Station (Nerima Ward, Tokyo) on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line. The Mercedes Benz driven by Fujiwara, at a speed exceeding the speed limit, collided from behind with a bicycle ridden by Yuki Kikuchi, 36, who lived nearby. Mr. Kikuchi was thrown to the ground and hit his head hard, and was taken to the hospital where he was confirmed dead.

Fujiwara was on his way back to his home in Saitama Prefecture after drinking a large amount of shochu and other alcoholic beverages at a Tokyo tavern. He was intoxicated and in no condition to drive. A passerby who witnessed the accident called 110. The police officer who arrived at the scene checked the suspect’s breath and found that it contained more than four times the legal limit of alcohol,” said a reporter for a national newspaper.

The accident also killed or injured a family of five. ……

Former Kanagawa Prefectural Police detective and crime journalist Taihei Ogawa explains.

The fact that he had four times the legal limit of alcohol means that he would have been unconscious rather than driving normally. Drunk driving is unacceptable for any reason.

In August 2006, a car driven by a drunken man rear-ended a passenger car in Fukuoka Prefecture, causing it to plunge into Hakata Bay. 5 people in the car, including a 3-year-old child, were killed or injured. The perpetrator was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Each one of us needs to make a vow to never get in a car if we have been drinking.

In this case, both the perpetrator and the victim are clear. Fujiwara, who had consumed an excessive amount of alcohol, admitted to the crime, saying, “I drove myself. Why did it take a month to arrest him? There was a surprising circumstance behind it.

There was a passenger in the car driven by Fujiwara. The suspect, Moeka Takahashi, 24, an office worker, was sitting in the passenger seat. Her statement hindered the investigation.

Immediately after the accident, Takahashi explained to the police officers who arrived at the scene.

I was driving.”

Fujiwara also stated that he was the driver. The police analyzed the drive recorder and security camera footage and found that Fujiwara was driving. It took some time before the police discovered that Fujiwara was driving.

The two were in a relationship and lived together. Takahashi probably tried to protect her boyfriend, Fujiwara, by giving a false explanation. In response to the subsequent police investigation, she said, ‘I lied and declared that I was the driver. There is no doubt that I lied and said that I drove the car. Takahashi was arrested on suspicion of concealing the culprit from Fujiwara.

Takahashi’s concern for the suspect is clearly wrong. No matter how much he is a dating partner, he cannot pretend that the negligence that took a person’s life did not exist.