AKITA -- A 49-year-old man fatally stabbed an insurance salesman here Monday night and seriously injured a woman in a head-on collision with her car an hour later, police said Tuesday.

The self-employed man, who was not identified, went to the house of Toshiaki Sato, 45, and stabbed him in the neck during a quarrel about the victim's relationship with the man's family, according to local police.

Police found Sato on the floor of the living room and took him to a hospital, where he died shortly afterward, they said.

The man fled the scene by car, and about an hour later in the city of Omagari, he collided with a minivan driven by Noriko Echigoya, 47, who suffered serious head injuries, police said.

Omagari police took the man into custody, but he is also in serious condition from self-inflicted cuts to the neck, they said.

Police said they will wait for him to recover and investigate the case as a homicide.