Psychiatrist gets 5 years in prison for fatal car crash

June 29, 2017

On June 27, 2017, psychiatrist Shoichiro Kaneko was sentenced by the Tokyo District Court to five years in prison for dangerous driving that killed a woman and injured four others.  

Kaneko had a seizure while driving.  While his lawyer argued that Kaneko had taken his prescribed medications and there was no indication he could have a seizure, the court dismissed the argument, saying that Kaneko had driven 147 kilometers that day and he should have known of the causal relationship between fatigue and seizure.

According to the ruling, Kaneko "failed to pay serious attention to the risk and did not respond correctly."

SOURCE: "Psychiatrist gets prison term in fatal seizure-caused car crash," Japan Today, 28 Jun 2017, https://japantoday.com/category/crime/psychiatrist-gets-prison-term-in-fatal-seizure-caused-car-crash.