On the 19th, the car driven by a 97-year-old driver was arrested in Fukushima City in an accident in which five people including pedestrians were killed and injured. I found out when I interviewed the police.
Cognitive function tests at this time did not confirm any problems, so the police will also investigate recent driving conditions.
On the evening of the 19th, a light passenger car ran out of control on a municipal road in Fukushima City, and a 42-year-old woman on the sidewalk was hit and killed, and four women in the car that was hit were injured. On the afternoon of the 21st, the police sent Kuniyoshi Namishio (97) of Fukushima City, who was arrested on suspicion of causing death by negligent driving, to the public prosecutor's office.
The suspect also had a minor head injury and was in the car while being supported from both sides by police officers when leaving the police station.
Police have not released a confirmation.
Subsequent interviews with the police revealed that the suspect renewed his driver's license between July and September two years ago.
If you are 75 years of age or older and want to renew your license, you are required to take a cognitive function test to measure your memory and judgment during the six months until the end of the renewal period.
The suspect said that it was the most recent inspection that he received with the renewal of his license, and no problems were confirmed at this time.
The police are investigating the circumstances that caused the accident, such as listening to the surrounding people to see if there were any abnormalities in recent driving conditions.
Multiple voices saying "It seemed that I was worried about driving"
From around the suspect, multiple voices were heard that he seemed to be worried about driving.
Of these, a woman who lives near her home said, ``I could hardly walk with a cane, so I always used a car when I went out. I was talking.
Another woman who lives nearby said, ``I saw him driving a car almost every day, but he was driving for his age, and there were times when I felt unsafe. I also heard that ``it took nearly an hour to get into the garage at home, so I helped with steering etc.'' Many of the residents in the neighborhood were worried, and a person who lives closer than me asked his family to help him. It seems that he was proposing that 'I should stop driving.'"
In addition, a taxi driver in the city who has taken the suspect many times said, ``When I last met him about a year ago, he spoke well, but his body was weaker than before. He felt that he would need a wheelchair, but he said, ``I haven't had an accident in decades, and I still have a driver's license, so I can't drive. He said, "There is."