The bereaved family of a pregnant woman who died after being struck by a vehicle in central Japan has urged prosecutors to recognize her daughter, born after the accident with a severe disability, as a victim.
The family visited the Ichinomiya branch of the Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office on Tuesday and requested that the suspect, who has been indicted for negligent driving resulting in the death of the mother, also be charged with negligent driving resulting in the injury of the daughter. The request was submitted along with some 110,000 signatures.
It remains to be seen whether prosecutors will determine they can press the injury charge, as a fetus is considered a part of the mother's body under the Criminal Code.
In the accident, 31-year-old Sayaka Togitani, who was due to give birth one-and-a-half months later, was struck by a minivehicle from behind while walking along the roadside in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, on May 21 and died in the hospital two days later. Her daughter Hinami was delivered via emergency cesarean section but suffered fetal hypoxia, which left her with a severe disability.
The 50-year-old driver was arrested on the spot and was indicted in June for negligent driving resulting in Sayaka's death.
"When I saw the indictment, (my daughter's) name wasn't on it at all," said Togitani's husband, Yudai, 33. "As a parent, I couldn't allow my daughter to be treated as if nothing had happened."
When making their decision, prosecutors are expected to take into account the 1988 Supreme Court ruling on the Minamata disease incident, in which the top court found that professional negligence resulting in death is established in the event that a person dies of a lesion that occurred as a fetus.
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