So, after the thread about the American going to jail over a car crash got me thinking.
It’s very common for parents in Japan to NOT properly use seat belts or child seats with their kids. You see it daily. Last night outside a Lawson I say this yankee family pull up in their old crown, the dad driving, the toddler, maybe 2 years old, standing up in the front passenger seat and the mom in the back.
So like, say there is a small fender bender, nothing big, maybe the crown starts pulling out of the Lawson and someone on their phone gives the car a bit of a bump from the back. The car obviously mostly at fault, wouldn’t do a ton of damage but say they caused the toddler to fall over and get a nasty head injury.
Who’s at fault there? Does the driver get in big trouble because the parents failed high school physics?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/v6ilef/so_what_happens_if_there_is_a_small_fender_bender/
5 comments
My wife was in a fender bender recently and it seems they assign percentage faults. In my wife’s case this was 100% on the other person. Not sure if that is prefectural law though.
This is what courts are for. Obviously if there was evidence of neglect on the part of the parents the case would be resolved accordingly
Since most adults don’t wear seatbelts, I’m gonna go with no they don’t buckle kids on properly.
I usually notice kids walking around inside moving vehicles
I am kind of surprised to find this post at 19 hrs but nobody has mentioned the Japanese license point system.
The way I was told by the police the last time I got into a wreck was the driver of each car has a responsibility for their passengers. If you are driving and they are hurt in a wreck that is not 100 percent the other drivers fault then you will also get points taken off. The more serious the offense the more serious the punishment.
I got t-boned by a driver running a stop sign with my wife in the passenger seat. Because I was moving at the time instead of standing still the percentage was something like 80/20. I being 20 percent wrong because if I was moving then I should have been more vigilant? Anyway the police said I put my passenger in danger and received a punishment for it.
So in your hypothetical, yes, the parents would also get in trouble. Hope this helps people driving in Japan. If you have people in the car with you, just by driving, you are taking responsibility for them.
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