SAITAMA (TR) – Saitama Prefectural Police have arrested a 52-year-old employee of the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) after he allegedly trapped another driver on a railway crossing, resulting in the vehicle being obliterated by a train, reports Nippon News Network (Aug. 20).
Kenichi Kato is accused of using his own vehicle to intentionally block a trailing car on a railway crossing in Saitama City on Tuesday evening.
Trapping the victim’s car
According to police, the incident began when Kato stopped his vehicle immediately after passing over the train tracks. This maneuver forced the victim’s car to come to a halt directly on the crossing, unable to move forward or backward.
Kato then exited his vehicle and approached the trapped driver to complain about tailgating. When the crossing alarms began to sound, Kato returned to his car. As the crossing gates lowered — trapping the victim’s car on the tracks —Kato drove away from the scene.
The victim desperately attempted to manually lift a crossing gate that had snagged on his vehicle but was unable to do so in time. He managed to escape before a train plowed into his car, completely destroying the vehicle.
During police questioning on suspicion of attempted murder, Kato downplayed the severity of his actions. “I drove away because I had finished warning him about his following distance being too close,” he told investigators.
“Tailgating”
Following the incident, Kato reportedly spoke to his mother, claiming he was the victim of aggressive driving. “I got out of the car because I was being tailgated,” he told her, adding, “I wonder why he was tailgating me. Maybe because I was driving slowly? It’s good that he wasn’t injured.”
Security camera footage from the area paints a picture of the escalating road rage. While footage taken 30 seconds before the incident shows a six-second gap between the JAF employee’s car and the victim’s, subsequent cameras show the victim’s car closing the gap, passing just two seconds behind Kato.
While police have not yet confirmed if the victim was actually tailgating, investigators are firmly pursuing the attempted murder charge. Police assert that Kato demonstrated clear murderous intent by deliberately driving away and abandoning the victim after the crossing gates had already come down.
