23 Years in Prison for Drunk Driving

It is not about James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Two cars were apparently competing each other with speed of over 100 km/h in the street. One of two cars hit a car with five passengers and killed four of them. Two devils on the cars escaped from the street without recuing the victims. The court sentenced twenty-three years in prison to each of two defendants, recognizing conspiracy of two drivers.

It was not a traffic accident, but a serous crime. Ryuji Tanikoshi and Ryuichi Komi was driving each of their cars with extremely high speed on the main street of Sunagawa City, Hokkaido, at the night on June 6^th last year. They ignored red light on a crossroad and entered without reducing the speed. Then, Tanikoshi’s car crushed a wagon driven by Koichi Nagaoke with his wife and three children and following Komi’s car dragged one body for 1.5 kilometers in its escaping drive. Tanikoshi got drunk at the time.

It was unusual that the court applied crime of conspiracy to two persons driving different cars. “Following increasing of speed by one, another accelerated its car. Both were sharing an intention to pass the crossroad with high speed ignoring red light,” concluded Judge of Sapporo Regional Court, Katsumi Tajiri. Tajiri recognized the case as “unprecedentedly evil.”

In the past interpretation of laws on car accident, each driver was responsible for his/her own car. From that viewpoint, Komi might have not as responsible for killing four families as Tanikoshi was. According to testimony of their friend on their cars, Komi and Tanikoshi were talking about each other, saying “Ryuichi goes fast” or “I can’t make it faster, no more.” The court recognized it not as an accident with negligence, but intensive crime to apply heavy penalty.

The families of victims have been demanding the heaviest penalty for the incident. “I was relieved, and want to tell past children the end of our struggle,” said Chieko Hirosawa, mother of Nagaoke. She also insisted that the incident was never forgettable. The lawyer for victims praised the decision as acceptable for any citizens. But some friends of the victims thought that twenty-three years in prison would not be so long, considering what they did.

The incident was not a crime of racers addicted to speed, but of hooligans ignoring rule of society for their fun. Both defendants did not show sincere regret on their deeds and kept on excusing themselves, denying conspiracy of each other. City of Sunagawa legislated new local law to eliminate drunk driving, warning young drivers on serious consequence of taking alcohol.