OKINAWA (TR) – Okinawa Prefectural Police have arrested a U.S. serviceman following a hit-and-run accident in the village of Yomitan early Monday that resulted in one injury, reports Jiji Press (May 29).
At around 1:15 a.m., a vehicle driven by Miguel Angel Garza, a 24-year-old staff sergeant at Kadena Air Base, rear-ended another car waiting at a light on a national highway. The suspect then fled the scene.
A woman, 34, in the other vehicle suffered a sprained vertebrae in the accident.
Officers from the Kadena Police Station. working off a tip from the U.S. military later questioned Garza at his residence. He was subsequently charged with violating the Road Traffic Act regarding a hit-and-run accident causing injury.
The suspect admits to the allegations.
A breath alcohol test conducted at the residence of the suspect yielded a result about four times the legal limit. Police are now investigating whether to apply drunk driving charges to the suspect.