Boy Hit Woman With Bike, Mother Liable To Pay 95 Million Yen
by Beth on Friday, July 5, 2013
by Beth on Friday, July 5, 2013
The most shared story on Facebook today was the shocking story of a mother held responsible to pay 95 million yen (around $947245) for a bicycle accident caused by her son while he was still in elementary school.
While the accident has left a woman in her sixties in a coma from which she has yet to recover, netizens have been shocked by the judge’s ruling, which not only placed responsibility squarely with the boy’s mother, but which also awarded an amount of compensation that is almost unheard of for a bicycle accident.
Although the Facebook comments suggest that the ruling has been effective in making people think of the dangers of bicycles, it also brought out the entrepreneurial spirit in Japanese insurance companies, who reposted the story on Facebook in an attempt to frighten their customers into taking out additional insurance…
From Asahi Shimbun:
Parent Ordered To Pay 95 Million Yen Compensation In Accident Where Boy Hit Woman With His Bike
On June 4, a decision was given at Kobe District Court in a case that questioned the responsibility of the parent of a boy (15) who hit a woman with his bicycle and left her in a coma. The boy was in the fifth grade of elementary school at the time of the accident. Judge Tanaka Tomoko ruled that “[The parents] did not sufficiently instruct the child such that he would not cause an accident”. The judge ordered the boy’s mother to compensate the plaintiff and the insurance company that paid out insurance money for her injuries to the sum of 95 million yen [approx. $947245].
According to the judge’s ruling, on the evening of September 22, 2008, the woman was hit while she was taking a walk with an acquaintance when the boy came down a hill in Kita ward, Kobe, on a mountain bike at a speed of 20 – 30 km/h. The woman’s skull was fractured, and she has still not regained consciousness.
The ruling stated that “The cause of the accident was that the boy had not looked ahead carefully”. The boy’s legal team denied gross negligence, saying that “He was not riding the bike dangerously, and had even had regular instruction”, however the judge decided that as the boy’s sole guardian, his mother had not sufficiently fulfilled her obligation to supervise him. Consequently, taking into consideration the woman’s loss of earnings, which she had been unable to earn due to the accident, as well as nursing fees, the judge stated that the boy’s mother was liable to pay out 35 million yen to the woman, and 60 million yen to the insurance company.
