Victims of Ikebukuro Runaway Car Crash Mourned 7 Years On

Tokyo, April 19 (Jiji Press)–Relatives of a woman and her daughter who were killed in a runaway car crash in Tokyo’s busy Ikebukuro district in April 2019 remembered their loved ones on Sunday, exactly seven years after the tragedy. After offering a silent prayer at a monument built near the accident site, Takuya Matsunaga, 39, called on elderly people to “consider the option of not driving” if they feel unwell. “I have spent the seven years thinking that I do not want to waste the lives of my wife and daughter while I was almost crushed by sadness,” he told reporters later. In the accident, which occurred around 12:23 p.m. on April 19, 2019, a car driven by an 87-year-old man, Kozo Iizuka, ran a red light and crashed into a crosswalk, killing Matsunaga’s wife, Mana, 31, and the couple’s daughter, Riko, 3, and injuring nine other people. Mana’s father, Yoshinori Uehara, 68, who visited the monument with Matsunaga, said: “My sorrow and suffering remain the same (seven years after the accident). I am always thinking about Mana and Riko, and spending my days talking to their portraits.” Iizuka’s five-year prison sentence for negligent driving resulting in death and injury was finalized in 2021. He died in 2024 while serving his sentence. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]