Chinese national arrested in Japan over alleged hit-and-run case that injured 4 boys
The suspect, Deng Hongpeng, is accused of hitting a group of pupils with his grey SUV, then driving away after checking on the children
A Chinese national has been arrested in Japan after allegedly fleeing the scene of a drink-driving incident that injured four schoolboys – the second case this month involving a group of children struck by a car, raising fresh alarm over pedestrian safety in the country.
The 42-year-old suspect, identified as Deng Hongpeng, turned himself in to police in Misato, a city about 20km from central Tokyo, on Sunday morning – four days after the incident.
Deng, a demolition worker and Misato resident, is accused of hitting a group of about 10 sixth-grade pupils with his grey SUV at around 4pm last Wednesday as they walked home from school. One boy suffered a fractured leg, police said.
The incident took place in a residential area as the pupils were walking home from school. The group had been on a straight road with good visibility. There was no pavement, so they had been walking on the shoulder of the road, authorities said.
Footage from a dashcam in another car showed two men getting out of the vehicle to check on the children. They then returned to their car and drove away as people gathered.
“The driver got out and said ‘Are you OK?’ but had this smirking, careless attitude,” one witness told The Japan Times. “The kids were repeating, ‘He ran away, he ran away!’ They’d even memorised the car’s licence plate.”
