"Heartbreaking accidents have continued to occur although measures have been taken," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said ruefully at a meeting of government officials on May 21.
Specifically, Abe was referring to two recent traffic incidents that occurred less than three weeks apart. He hopes someone can find a way to prevent similar incidents from occurring.
On April 19, an 87-year-old driver shot through a red light at an intersection near Tokyo's Ikebukuro Station and ran down 11 people as dozens of eyewitnesses looked on. The accident proved fatal for a 31-year-old woman on a bicycle and her 3-year-old daughter. Eight others suffered various degrees of injuries.
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