Japan: 75-year-old taxi driver rams into people watching street music act

A 75-year-old taxi driver on Saturday rammed his vehicle into the sidewalk and injured seven people who were watching a street music performance at the station square in Nagoya.

Four men and three women were hurt in the incident which was witnessed around 9:25 p.m. (Local time) near the city's Kanayama Station, the Japan Times reported.

"While people were attending to those who had been injured, the taxi suddenly backed up, hitting and injuring more people,'' said one of the witnesses.

The driver, identified as Katsuhiro Komori, was arrested and he told the police that he does not remember what happened, cops said.

A colleague of the driver said that he had never heard of him causing an accident and that he did not have any problems at work.

In the aftermath of similar accidents involving elderly drivers, the National Police Agency (NPA), the land ministry and other related ministries are in discussion to create a new driver's license system that limits senior citizens to cars with certain safety features and mandatory cognitive assessment test when they renew their licenses.

Last year, 460 fatal traffic accidents were reported in Japan which was caused by drivers aged 75 or over. The numbers has surged from 8.7 percent in 2008 to 14.8 percent in 2018, NPA said.

( With inputs from ANI )