TOKYO (TR) – An elderly female driver trying to exit a hospital parking lot in Tachikawa City ended up on a sidewalk and killed two pedestrians, possibly mistaking the accelerator for the brake, police said on Saturday.
The Tachikawa Police Station said Sachiko Uesu, 83, was trying to drive out of the parking lot of a hospital when she veered into a sidewalk before killing a man and woman in their 30s, NHK reports (Nov. 12).
Uesu, who was hospitalized with a head injury in the collision, was quoted by police as saying she “was visiting my husband in the hospital. I hit the brakes, but the car didn’t stop.”
“I hit the brakes but I didn’t make it in time,” Uesu was quoted as saying by the Nikkei Shimbun.
Uesu will be questioned under possible suspicion of negligent driving resulting in death after she recovers, police said, adding that she may have mistook her car’s accelerator for the brake.
Police found no evidence of brake marks at the scene, and the parking lot gate bar was broken.
A witness told police they “heard a snap as a car came crashing in,” referring to the gate bar being destroyed.
