外国特派員協会で4/13日に記者会見です。 そのために作成した英文資料を掲載しました。
外国のお友達に読んでみていただければ、非常にうれしいです。
Overview of the accident
March 3. 2006, 14:34.
A traffic accident between a school bus and a police motorcycle of Kochi prefectural police department occurred on National Road Route 56 in Kochi city. While the bus loaded with 22 junior high school students was attempting to turn to the right, the motorcycle advancing from the right side collided with the bus.
About 30 minutes later, the bus driver Haruhiko Kataoka was arrested on site for professional negligence resulting in injuries and taken to the police station. At almost the same time the school principal and three of the students who witnessed the accident were also escorted to the same police station and requested to describe the accident.
They were interviewed not where the accident occurred but at the police station. Meanwhile, only the policemen, without the driver or any of the witnesses, conducted the on-site investigation. The driver, Mr. Kataoka, was left alone in the police office, without being inquired about the accident.
When the death of the policeman on the motorcycle reached the office, Mr. Kataoka was taken back to the site and the investigation was restarted with him. However, he was not allowed to get out of the police car and was not even allowed to look outside the window.
After 2 days of being told the death of the police officer was his fault, an exhausted Mr. Kataoka was released by the police. The police officer died from a thoracic aorta rupture.
Prosecution
Eight months after the accident, Mr. Kataoka was summoned to the Kochi prosecutor’s office. The description of the accident presented to him was completely different from what he had actually experienced.
He stopped the bus near a central divider on the 3-lane road for about 30 seconds to attempt to turn to the right, waiting for a traffic break in the lanes ahead. The police motorcycle crashed into the stopped bus at a considerably high speed.
On the contrary, the assistant prosecutor explained the case as follows:
“The bus darted into the intersection without checking for oncoming traffic and knocked down the motorcycle at the point of 6.5 meters from the walkway while then engaging the emergency brake and screeching to a halt dragging the motorcycle for 3.0 meters.”
These details were completely different from what Mr. Kataoka had experienced. Mr. Kataoka maintained that he thoroughly confirmed safety before entering the roadway, that he did not engage the emergency brake when the motorcycle collided because the bus was stopped and that the proposed collision point was completely different from reality.
Ｋataoka The prosecutor
The assistant prosecutor completely rejected Mr. Kataoka’s claim and thrust a photo at him. The photo showed skid marks of 1.0 meter on the right and 1.2 meters on the left, which were supposed to prove the use of the bus’ emergency brake. Mr. Kataoka was speechless.
Prosecutor’s assertion
The prosecutor submitted 135 photos taken at the site and the analysis of the accident by the Crime Laboratory of Kochi. The prosecutor also presented scientific analysis regarding the motorcycle and the bus’s speed at the time of the accident. The analysis concluded that the bus was traveling at a speed of 14km/h and the motorcycle between 30km/h and 40 km/h. He also called as a witness another motorcycle policeman who had supposedly passed the scene of the accident by chance.
Policeman A testified that the speed of the oncoming motorcycle was 60km/h by eye measurement from a distance of 170 meters and that the speed of the bus, which was advancing from the right towards the left, was 10km/h by eye measurement from a distance of 120 meters.
ＴＯ ＢＥ ＣＯＮＴＩＮＵＥ
この資料作成に協力頂いた北欧在住のＩさんに、熱く御礼申し上げます。
」そして校正をしてくれたカナダ人のＭｒ．Z ありがとうございました。
(jbh氏)
