Monday 27th December, 07:00 AM JST
TOKYO —
Prosecutors reversed their decisions and indicted those who caused traffic accidents in 30, or just over a quarter, of the 112 cases in which inquest panels reviewed prosecutorial decisions between April and September after victims filed appeals, a study by Kyodo News showed Sunday.
In the 30 cases, prosecutors apparently changed their mind before the inquest panels, comprising randomly selected citizens, could determine they warranted indictment. Indictment has to be filed if a panel decides twice that the case deserves such action.
In these 30 cases, as indictment were made, the panels terminated their reviews of prosecutors’ decisions.
Whether a person who caused a traffic accident was negligent or not considerably impacts compensation for victims. Often the cause of an accident can be made known only by police or prosecutors.
In some cases, prosecutors apparently decided not to file an indictment after inspecting the accident site with the presence only of one who caused it, raising concerns that investigations may not be 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 do not take any relevant statistics.
Appeals were filed with the inquest panels for negligence in driving cars resulting in injuries, reckless driving resulting in injuries and a few other charges.
One of them was filed by a 24-year-old man who suffered leg injuries after his motorbike collided with a car in October last year in Kyoto city. He brought the case to the panel’s attention because investigators checked the site of the accident in the presence of the car driver only.
After the appeal was filed, the prosecutors had the man attend an accident site investigation and filed in June a summary indictment against the car driver for negligence in driving the car resulting in injuries.
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