Actor Hirosue’s Car Accident Case Sent to Prosecutors

Shizuoka, Nov. 13 (Jiji Press)–Japanese police on Thursday sent public prosecutors papers on actor Ryoko Hirosue, 45, for alleged negligent driving resulting in injury in a car accident on an expressway in April. Her car rear-ended a large trailer truck in a tunnel on the Shin-Tomei Expressway in Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, on the afternoon of April 7, causing a male passenger to suffer bone fracture. The Shizuoka prefectural police found that Hirosue had been driving at over 160 kilometers per hour. After hitting the truck, the car struck the walls on both sides of the tunnel before stopping. The accident occurred in a three-lane tunnel with good visibility, and no brake marks were left. The police sought to build a case against her on suspicion of dangerous driving resulting in injury, which carries heavier punishment. But they seem to have given up the idea after searching her home in Tokyo and conducting on-site inspections with the suspect present. Hirosue was arrested in the small hours of April 8 for allegedly assaulting and injuring a nurse at the hospital in the same prefecture to which she was taken. She was released from police custody eight days later. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]