Tokyo Police send Papers to Prosecutors on Toyota Worker over Paralympic Village ‘Self-driving bus’ Accident

From Jiji Press

January 6 2022

TOKYO – Tokyo police sent to public prosecutors on Thursday papers on an employee of Toyota Motor Corp. over a self-driving bus accident at the Paralympic athletes village in Tokyo that inflicted injury on a visually impaired Japanese athlete.

The male Toyota employee, 39, is suspected of negligent driving resulting in injury, according to investigative sources. He has admitted to the charges, the sources said.

The employee was driving an e-Palette autonomous electric bus of Toyota, equipped with Level 2 autonomous driving technology that offers driving support.

The Metropolitan Police Department has concluded that the accident was caused by his negligence and that there were no problems with the vehicle’s functions or structure.

The Toyota employee allegedly hit judoka Aramitsu Kitazono, 30, at around 2 p.m. on Aug. 26 last year at the athletes village in the Harumi waterfront district of the Japanese capital, leaving the Paralympian slightly injured.