A court on Monday sentenced a 30-year-old man to a prison term of 18 years in a retrial over a 2017 road rage incident that resulted in the deaths of a couple and injuries to their two daughters.
The Yokohama District Court convicted Kazuho Ishibashi of dangerous driving after he overtook the car of Yoshihisa Hagiyama, 45, and his family on the Tomei Expressway in Kanagawa Prefecture on June 5, 2017, and forced it to stop in the passing lane, where it was rear-ended by a truck.
The court recognized that Ishibashi's actions constituted dangerous driving, which was the main focus of the trial.
The prison term was handed down by presiding Judge Kiyoshi Aonuma as demanded by prosecutors, who argued Ishibashi was liable for dangerous driving for repeatedly slowing down in front of the family's car. His defense argued there was no causal link between his driving and the accident.
According to the indictment, Ishibashi was enraged after being warned by Hagiyama about the way he had parked his car in an expressway parking area just before the incident. Ishibashi pursued Hagiyama, who was traveling with his wife, Yuka, 39, and their two daughters.
The court convicted Ishibashi of dangerous driving in relation to the case in December 2018, handing him an 18-year prison sentence. Ishibashi pleaded not guilty in both trials.
In December 2019, the Tokyo High Court agreed with the decision but quashed the ruling and sent the case back, stating the lower court illegally overturned a view expressed in a pretrial hearing that Ishibashi's actions did not constitute dangerous driving.
Extensive news coverage of the incident sparked greater public concern over dangerous driving. In 2020, the government implemented revisions to traffic laws that toughened punishment for road rage offenses.
Ishibashi has also been indicted over a separate road rage incident in Yamaguchi Prefecture.