On the 22nd, the Saitama Prefectural Police Expressway Corps presented a letter of appreciation to Masakiyo Kimura (73), a company employee from Kawagoe City (photo (right)), for preventing a car from driving the wrong way after entering the expressway from an exit.
At around 8:40 a.m. on March 18, Mr. Kimura was traveling in the deceleration lane leading to the Arashiyama Ogawa Toll Gate to get off the Kanetsu Expressway, which has three lanes on each side, when he saw a vehicle coming from the opposite direction and driving in the opposite direction onto the main road. Found a light car. He flashed his hazard lights and other lights to guide the vehicle to the side of the road.
The driver was a woman in her late 80s. She didn’t notice that she was driving in the wrong direction, so Mr. Kimura explained the situation. She said the woman appeared to have entered the deceleration lane from the same toll plaza, which she thought was a public road.
Mr. Kimura, who received a letter of appreciation from the Tokorozawa Expressway Traffic Police Force, said, “I never thought I’d be the one to stop driving the wrong way.”
The reason he was able to move so quickly was because he was involved in the renovation of an interchange in Tokyo two years ago, and because he had heard about wrong-way driving accidents on expressways in the news. She assumed that there was a risk that her car would be rear-ended by the car behind her, so she “reacted calmly,” including turning the steering wheel to the left, where there was no traffic lane, she recalled.
Captain Yoshitaka Matsumoto said, “Wrong-way driving on an expressway has a high possibility of developing into a serious accident, so we would appreciate it if you could prevent it.If you spot a vehicle driving the wrong way on an expressway, please report it immediately.” Please,” he called out. (Yusaku Adachi)
Tags: Saitama Prefectural Police sends letter appreciation Kimura Kawagoe preventing wrongway driving expressways Tokyo Shimbun TOKYO Web
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