Traffic Accidents in Japan

Drivers in my region are terrible. We're in a economic boom, so there are alot of new out of towners here. People here just drive with so little awareness of others its ridiculous. I'm on the road alot, and there isn't a day I don't shake my head at someones idiotic judgement. Price of the big city I guess.

road rage driver problems here -_-

先日、ディーラーから借りてた代車で事故りました。相手が悪いのですが、結構もめてます。仕方がないので訴訟を起こそうかと検討中。はぁ〜。

Traffic accidents do happen here but I've never seen such reckless driving before... The cars just charge at each other...
I was in a cab with my family one day, we were going to my uncle's house, an accident happened infront of the cab i was in... I was pretty shocking, luckily both drivers were unharmed but one got stucked in his truck...
My advice to you guys out there, look right look left and raise your hand when crossing the road!

We have many traffic accidents here, usually involves drunk drivers/speeders/racers or the combination of the three. Whats really bad though is accidents in the morning that cause traffic to be backed up for possibly 20-30 minutes, resulting in some angry or rude drivers.

PURE PWNAGE ._.
Yet so sad, luckily I haven't been in any accidents, but heard of some disgusting ones such as skate boarders on the 401(major highway) skating at 6:00am and getting whacked by a freight truck at 120 km/h and exploding :3
He only had half his head connected to his body(which also lost a few limbs)- sorry for being very graphic.

traffic accidents here aren't that bad compared to the video shown there and to other countries. it's usually just a minor bump.

Many European car manufacturers are starting to help in the battle against dui. Like Volvo have those keys which double as breathtester immobiliser units. Also a lot of these european cars are being designed with pedestrian collisions in mind. I know a lot of these cars now have crumple zones or weak spots on the hood in order to soften a collision with a pedestrian. I think on a sad note japanese and korean cars in australia have, in general, always been rated lower in terms of safety than the European cars. Why is that? I can't help but think that jap car makers prefer to put more gadgetry in their cars than safety nets. Is safety really an afterthought?
Does Japan's police force take drink driving seriously? In Australia on a Friday night i know quite a few main roads will be blocked by the booze bus (basically breath testing and drug testing everyone that passes) and i've gone through many a breath test and passed. Do they have something like this in Japan?

Christ - i cant believe the truck one near the end! It just throws the guy out the window! Guess he should have worn his seat belt. The one with the kid on the crossing too - i hope he got out of that ok and the driver got his arse whupped in court...

The driver of the little white car should indeed have worn his seat belt, it would most likely have prevented him to get thrown outide the window.

@nivexus: You're probably talking about Volvo's Alcoguard. It's actually not a key, but a fully integrated system in the car, you blow in a little device (which compares your alcohol promilage to the legal standard) and if you've drank to much the Volvo won't start.
And about those pedestrian friendly hoods, another way to reduce the impact of a crash is that the hood slightly goes up (with a light angle) to prevent the pedestrian from hitting the front window (which mostly causes the biggest injury).

If I'm not mistaken, traffic accidents are number 2 in causes of death here in Brazil.
And traffic accidents are mainly caused by drunk driving and disrespect to traffic laws. By far.

Now, if you consider my country is not exactly safe, lots of people die everyday because of violence and deceases (our health care is also a pile of crap), you can imagine how bad this is.

Just some weeks ago there was this ad on the TV saying lots more people died because of car accidents on Brazil last year than people died on Iraq because of the war in the same period.

Brazilian drives lacks education, lacks taking care of their vehicles, and overal concience about how dangerous driving can be. Thus the lack of responsability.

The government does NOTHING to help that, and our roads are in terrible shape too.

Me? I use the car only when I really have to. And if I someday move to japan, I'll probably try as much as I can to use only public transportation...

Don't feel sympathetic at all - its their choice to drink and drive/ignore traffic lights - if they choose to risk their life - that's fine with me

Most of those accidents were failure to yield to through traffic. I only feel sorry for the victims.

I feel for the guy on the bike, I've been there. Luckily for me the guy was pulling out from a stop sign and wasn't going very fast. I only end up with a mild concussion, a broken collar bone, a sprained ankle and 8 stitches near my left eye. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing right after being hit I felt fine, it wasn't till it wore off and I went in to shock that the pain hit. Local cops were useless thou they said because the guy stopped and asked if I was alright it was ok for him to leave the scene of an accident.

2 years ago there was this case in singapore whereby a man caused the death of a young car saleslady while test-driving her company's sports car.

he was speeding at twice the legal speed limit and lost control of the car while negotiating a bend. the car crashed, killing the sales executive while he escaped unhurt.

last year this same man openly posted in a online cars forum asking readers which sports car he should buy.

there caused a huge public outcry, people started questioning how come the man can still drives while the case is still ongoing?

last month, he pleaded guilty and was suspended from driving for 10 years and sentenced to seven months in jail.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/307522/1/.html

i feel sympathy for those victims. especially the people who were even in cars.

One of the reasons I was told as a child to look left, right and left again before crossing the road (we drive on the right side over here, so in Japan, that would be right|left|right) is to avoid accidents.

Too bad it doesn't keep you from potentially suffering the same fate as those high schoolers, but it's a start, I guess.

I heard another cause of traffic accidents here is sleep deprivation. Like a lot of people fall asleep on the wheel, and it's even more dangerous sometimes because there's no law against sleep driving.

I just hope that they where wearing seatbelt. Unlike the one who got flung out the car.

I just realized something and wondered why is it that whenever a horrible crash happens, the innocent victims are the ones to die as a result and the ones who caused it either walk away unscathed or with minor injuries.

those crashes were crazy. just carelessness and bad defensive driving.
I feel bad for the victims.none for the drunk drivers.

we always have a lot of traffic accidents that happens here.

some ignorant drivers ignore traffic signs and traffic lights. for some drivers, instead of the orange light to be 'slow down', they consider it as 'hurry up' thus causing a lot of accidents...

I live in the Triangle of Death: The New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia death triangle so don't get me started on bad traffic accidents XD

I would say drunk driving is still a problem over in the USA. Whether emotionally wrecked or not, a driver has a responsibility when on the road for the lives of others, their passengers and themselves. With a DUI (Driving under the Influence) it is a mess trying to get that cleared off of a record.

Drivers around here are some of the worst in the nation. Just today some idiot made a right turn from a far left lane, missing two cars and pedestrians in the process. I have seen others cut people off and play a game of cat and mouse. One car will be coming around 90mph (rough kmh translation, around 160-200 perhaps?) and go around the person in front of them, then repeat the process. These people I like to box in =D.

I also don't appreciate tailgaters and I make sure to go 10 under for them. When (if) they back off I resume normal speeds. I never try to go 5 or 10mph over. Pennsylvania Law states that if you go 26mph over you lose your license. 5mph-10mph is ok but anything +10 of the speed limit is pushing it for a ticket. Everyone speeds and even I do. If I do I make sure I am in a safe place to do it: say many of the deserted roadways across Pennsylvania (not major ones).

Some blame can also be put on the engineering of roadways. Up in Reading where I live there is this one shopping complex (off of Broadcasting Road for locals) that is absoloutly horrible. Id like to find the engineer and smack him across the head. Then again Reading is a very big city and is #1 in the USA for car theft so it is no suprise that traffic is a whore.

Accidents do happen but your more common accident is anything from a fender bender to a collision: anything with two or more cars in contact. I don't hear a lot of reports on pedestrians being hit but it does happen. It is law in Pennsylvania: pedestrians have the right of way. You will notice that everyone from New York has a damaged bumper and people from New Jersey drive like idiots =D (I am 10 miles from the line). Of course I cant speak for all drivers there but that is what I have experienced. NEVER, EVER EVER EVER should I see a car coming off a ramp at FIFTEEN MPH in a 65 speed limit zone. I almost killed this idiot.

Wow... and here i thought the accidents that occurred at a junction near my house was odd. all are of similar cases (car/bike/bicycle crossing a street), but without the traffic lights.
the strange thing is though, i still say that speed does not kill, it's total ignorance. people think that once they have a driving license (and some of them without one), they are fit to drive on the road... recklessly.
i'd like to point out that having a license only proves that you're competent to drive legally, but not recklessly with ignorance.
for me, a good and safe driver is not necessarily the slowest, but the ones with commitment. those who are committed to driving will drive properly; by knowing their limits, not being stupidly fast (but fast whenever it is safe to do so and not drive recklessly (and be responsible for goodness sakes)
thumbs up to you out there who are committed to driving (i know i am)~~~

One time when I was on my way to Vancouver there was a truck pulling one of those big trailer campers in front of us and the left tire of the camper burst. It started to lean to the side and slide sideways and then it flipped right over off a small cliff. It was only about 5 feet, so nobody got hurt. But it was pretty crazy to watch.

ah shit ... that video was scarry !! they just don wanna follow the rules don't they?

wow.. and i thought Korea was dangerous.

GOD that is really scary and sad poor pedestrians. are those drivers aware of what they did after the crash?? i hope the police takes their driver license away

I live in Miami, which is known as the city, in the United States, to have the highest percentage of car accidents. We get car pile-ups almost monthly. Its become accustomed to see cars flipped upside-down. In most cases its not because of drunk driving.

I come from a small city in the middle of an area where lots of people have cottages, so we have a LOT of drunk driving accidents, people having a little too much of a good time on their vacations.

omg, that video!

don't people look when they drive through intersections?
they're also driving really fast!

we don't have too many accidents, even though it's quite a challenge driving in zurich itself, too many bicycles, trams, cars, and people.