Investigator urges people not to forget deadly 2019 crash in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district

Original source (on modern site) | Article images: [1] [2]

Akira Takahashi (left), the lead police investigator of a violent car crash in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, examines the site of the deadly incident along with Kozo Iizuka, the driver who was later sentenced to five years in prison, in June 2019. | JIJI

With Sunday marking seven years since a woman and her daughter were killed by a runaway car in Tokyo's bustling Ikebukuro district, the lead police investigator at the time is urging people to remember the lessons learned from the incident.

"We should not let this accident fade away," said Akira Takahashi, 58, now head of the Traffic Investigation Division with Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department.

Shortly after noon on April 19, 2019, Takahashi rushed to Ikebukuro from the MPD's headquarters after receiving a report that a car hit multiple people. He described the scene as gruesome and unlike anything he had experienced before, with a garbage truck on its side and a bicycle split in half. The driver of the car was an 87-year-old man.

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