Fatal Accident Caused by Miscalculated Accelerator…Former Special Investigator Ace, Accuser of the Accident, Sues Toyota for “False Accidental Accident”.

The car started with the driver’s legs outside the car.

Tatsuhiro Ishikawa, 85, a former Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office special investigator, filed a lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corporation and its sales company for 50 million yen in damages for a fatal accident caused by a runaway Lexus in Tokyo in 2006, claiming that the accident was caused by a defect in the vehicle. On February 20, the Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of Mr. Ishikawa, rejecting his claim in its entirety. Although it appears to be a “false accusation” by Ishikawa, who was convicted in a criminal trial, the former “special investigative ace” apparently had something he really wanted to sue for.

The accident occurred on February 18, 2006, in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. Mr. Ishikawa was getting out of the driver’s seat of his Lexus, which he had parked to meet a golfing friend, when the car suddenly started. The car sped off at speeds exceeding 100 km/h, striking and killing a 37-year-old man on the sidewalk.

Ishikawa was charged with manslaughter and other crimes, and in May 2011 he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, suspended for five years, on the grounds that the accident was caused by his accidentally depressing the accelerator pedal. However, two months later, in July 2011, Mr. Ishikawa filed a civil suit against Toyota Motor Corporation and others, claiming that his car was defective. He claimed that the accident was caused by a defect in the car.

The security camera footage shows that the driver’s left foot, which is believed to have stepped on the accelerator pedal, was definitely outside the car when the car started. The result of having an expert in image analysis analyze the security camera footage showed that ‘the left foot is seen outside the car. At the appeal hearing of the criminal trial, the results of that appraisal were submitted as evidence, but the judge did not mention the credibility of the appraisal at all in his ruling, and found that the driver was accelerating with his left foot. And that ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court and the sentence was confirmed. Therefore, we filed this civil trial with the intention of questioning the credibility of the silenced expert testimony,” said Masaki Kobayashi, attorney representing Mr. Ishikawa.

The expert in image analysis is Dr. Hiroki Yamauchi, professor emeritus at Ritsumeikan University. He is an image analysis instructor at the Osaka Prefectural Police Headquarters and also served as an image analysis instructor at the Metropolitan Police Department until 2008. Recently, he served as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of a former Nagano prefectural assemblyman accused of murdering his wife, and is truly an authority on car image analysis. He is an authority on car image analysis. In criminal trials, Mr. Yamauchi’s expert opinion is absolutely trusted, but for some reason, the criminal case was closed without mentioning the contents of his opinion.