3 Children Mourned 20 Years after Fukuoka Drunken-Driving Crash

Fukuoka, Aug. 25 (Jiji Press)–The southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka on Tuesday marked the 20th anniversary of a high-profile drunken-driving crash that killed three young siblings, with a rally held to remember the victims and vow to eradicate intoxicated driving. The event was attended by some 450 people, including Seitaro Hattori, governor of Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima, and the mother of the three victims. “Don’t drink and drive, don’t let others do it, don’t tolerate it and don’t overlook it,” Hattori said. Kaori Onuma, a 49-year-old mother of the three children killed in the tragedy, spoke about her grief at the event. “Every time I am referred to as a bereaved family member, and every time a picture of my children is referred to as a photo of the deceased, it is so painful, but I hadn’t been able to say that those words are painful,” she said. She recited a poem reflecting on the past 20 years, reading, “When it is so hard to live, what is the point of being kept alive?” “Families who have been involved in drunken-driving accidents will never be able to build the same happiness they once had,” Onuma told reporters after the rally. “I will continue to speak out on behalf of those who lost their lives (in drunken-driving accidents).” The Fukuoka prefectural police department conducted a coordinated crackdown on drunken driving Tuesday with police departments of the six other prefectures in the Kyushu region. The southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, south of Kyushu, had also been scheduled to participate, but authorities determined that doing so would be difficult due to an approaching typhoon. It was the first such joint crackdown involving police departments from all seven prefectures in Kyushu. The accident, which prompted the introduction of tougher penalties on intoxicated driving, occurred Aug. 25, 2006. A car carrying Onuma, her husband and the couple’s three children was rear-ended by a vehicle driven by a drunken man on the Uminonakamichi Ohashi bridge in the city of Fukuoka and plunged into the sea. The children–first son Hiroaki, 4, second son Tomoaki, 3, and first daughter Saya, 1–died. The following year, Japan revised the road traffic law to raise penalties for intoxicated driving and hit-and-run incidents. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]