A car driven by a drunken U.S. Marine plunged into the sea in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, early Saturday, less than two days after a late-night curfew on local U.S. military personnel was lifted, police said.
Twenty-one-year-old Lance Cpl. Kaylin Matthews, posted to the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan, escaped from his car unaided and uninjured, they said.
Police plan to send papers on Matthews to Japanese public prosecutors on suspicion he drove drunk in violation of the Road Traffic Law. Police detected 0.25 milligrams of alcohol in a liter of breath sampled from him.
The accident occurred around 12:15 a.m. Saturday as Matthews was driving from the Futenma facility to a Naha disco, they said.
A late-night curfew on military personnel and a ban on after-midnight drinking imposed a month ago on U.S. forces on the island was lifted noon Thursday.
An off-limits restriction between midnight and 5 a.m. covering all off-base establishments that serve alcohol is still in force.
The measures were imposed July 11 ahead of the July 21-23 Group of Eight summit following a series of crimes allegedly involving U.S. servicemen.
A U.S. Marine stationed at the Futenma base was arrested for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old junior high school girl he found asleep after breaking into her house in the city of Okinawa on July 3.
Six days later, a U.S. airman was arrested in connection with a hit-and-run incident.