Prosecutors reversed their decisions and indicted people in just over a quarter of the 112 traffic accident cases involving appeals-triggered inquest panel reviews between April and September, a study by Kyodo News showed Sunday.
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In the 30 cases, prosecutors apparently decided to change their minds before the inquest panels could determine they warranted indictment. An indictment has to be filed if such a panel, composed of randomly selected citizens, decides twice that the case deserves such action.
As the indictments were made, the panels terminated their reviews of prosecutors' decisions.
Whether a person who caused a traffic accident is deemed negligent considerably impacts the compensation awarded to the victims. In many cases, the cause of an accident can be made known only by police or prosecutors.
In some cases, the prosecutors apparently decided not to file an indictment after inspecting the accident site in the presence only of the one who caused it, raising concerns that investigations weren't being conducted appropriately.
The study is based on inquiries made with 67 of the 165 inquest panels throughout the nation.
Of those polled, 56 provided valid responses. Eleven panels in Chiba, Tokyo and Yokohama said they did not have any relevant statistics.
The appeals were filed with the inquest panels for negligence in driving that resulted in injuries, reckless driving resulting in injuries, and a few other charges.
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