Car hits high school girl athletes in Onna Village

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A car driven by a man who works at a restaurant in Yomitan Village hit a line of female high school students who were visiting Okinawa for wrestling training, on Hwy 58 in Onna Village in the early morning of Mar. 7.

There were eight female high school students in the group crossing the street, and two were hit and taken to a hospital. One of the injured girls suffered a severe concussion and was taken to the hospital unconscious, while the other girl broke her leg.

According to Ishikawa police, the card hit the students when they were crossing road at a traffic light. One student said the light for pedestrians was green when the accident occurred. The rest six students and the driver of the card were not injured.

When questioned the driver told police that “I was not paying enough attention when I was driving, and didn’t watch the road ahead of me carefully.”

The accident took place on Hwy 58 at Nakadomari, Onna Village, and the visibility on the road at the time was good.

The girls are all second grade students of the Abe Institute High School in Tokyo, and members of the school’s wrestling club. The students had been running along the Hwy 58, and tried to cross the road at a traffic light in order to continue running by the ocean. The driver slammed on his brakes but too late.

The Abe Institute High School is famous for its wrestling club, and the injured students are good athletes who have won championships at the All Japan High School Wrestling Tournament.

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spottyloft

A lot of Okinawan people drive like they don’t care about anything or anyone else around them. It’s a funny thing when you get a selfish human behind the wheel; their personality become the size and weight of their vehicle.
- http://twitter.com/mwduncan Ⓜark
  
  I guess Okinawans and Americans have something in common then. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen some Y plate Skyline or Delica driving as fast as possible down 58 weaving in and out of traffic.
  - Kate
    
    Yeah I usually have problems with my fellow Y-platers not kanji plates… And honestly with Okinawans I only have issues when they are going under the god forbid slow speed limit haha which isnt that bad at all.
  - spottyloft
    
    I haven’t had the same experiences with Y plates, usually they are a site for sore eyes in bad traffic. Kanji plates however –are the worst. They are the maneuver dangerously, drive slow in the passing lane, talk on their phones while driving, text and drive…. Oh, do I need to venture onto the issue of child restraints in cars here in Okinawa? How about the number of elderly allowed to drive? I think we’ve all seen it and can agree Okinawa has some serious issues MINUS the Y plates.
  - Jeff
    
    As a Y-plate bearer myself, I freely admit that I had trouble adjusting to the slower pace and the nearly-insurmountable density of red stop lights within any given km on the island during my first year or so on Okinawa. From my observations in Okinawa and the U.S. (as well as two other continents), I have come to understand that Okinawans are simply laid back, while we Americans are all-too-often eager to get nowhere fast. When you mix the two, of course there will be issues. I totally disagree with spottyloft on all accounts.
    
    We must not forget that we are on THEIR turf. Any educated person would understand the words to follow your claim that “they are the maneuver dangerously” (grammar errors belong to the original author) to be in support of such claim, and I don’t see any egregious errors cited. Driving slow in the passing lane–it’s not England or Germany, and it’s not necessarily a passing lane; it’s their turf, and we shall accept their customs. How many states in the U.S. have outlawed cell-phones while driving? I count eleven, and I guarantee people in those states still do it. And with regard to the child restraints–this is a relatively recent law. It was likely to have been enacted primarily as a defense posture in response to all the crazy gaijin speeders coasting down the roads as if they are expressways.
    
    Finally, we come to the elderly–why should they not be as privileged as the younger generation, if not MORE? Even more-so in Japan, where respect to elders is a critical value to the culture. Sure, they are slower drivers, but the younger drivers are faster! Which, pray tell, is more likely to end up in an accident? If you answer that the elder driver is more likely to end up in an accident, is it not because the younger driver will create the accident? Don’t be a fool–insurance is more expensive for young drivers for a reason.
    
    Again, I disagree plainly with everything spottyloft has said.
    
    This gaijin loves Okinawa. Rock on. With regard to the young ladies of Abe Institute’s wrestling team, I hope they are doing well.
ewacloser

I used to dread riding with my brother-in-law, gas, brake,gas, brake,gas……..