Investigating the scene of the accident

Had an eventful day today. As I was leaving the Okinawa expressway at the Ishikawa exit, in my rearview mirror I glanced a white car hurtling up behind me. I guess it was doing about 120 KPH exiting the expressway and not slowing at all. The car swerved around me hit the railing, careened across the road hitting the road markers and grass, but didn’t stop. It seemed the driver kept his foot to the floor as he veered back across the road hit the railing again then ricocheted back across again up the grass and drove along the banking. I thought he was going to flip, but he dropped back to the road, and kept on going. He went through the little tunnel under the expressway and then amazingly through the automatic barrier of the toll gate.

I continued following him, as he bounced off more sidings. He reached the major junction bounced over the kern, hit the median, and the car came to a halt. I stopped my car at the lights, took a photo of the scene with my phone (as he was trying to reverse) and ran over to the car. I opened the door, checked the guy was okay and stopped his engine. It was a Japanese man in his 60’s who seemed to be completely clueless about what was going on.

Finally comes to a stop, but still wants to keep going.

My Japanese isn’t fluent, but I could follow the gist of the conversation once the police arrived. He said he hadn’t been drinking, but does have diabetes. He didn’t think he was having any problems until he came to a stop in the middle of the road at the traffic lights. He said he unaware that he’d swerved around me or crashed multiple times. He seemed to be telling the cops that the accident occurred only at the traffic lights. I told the police my version of the events, and they brought in the expressway police in one of their unmarked vehicles with the pop up red light. They wanted me to show them where on the expressway exit I’d seen the accident take place so I got in the police car and we hurtled down to the next junction,  turned around and hurtled back to leave from the same exit ramp. I sat in the back of a police car as we did 172kph with the lights on and siren blaring. (Interestingly it read about 185 on the car’s analogue speedo and 172 on the police digital readout).

It was pretty clear where he’d bounced around as there was a trail of dented railings, crushed markers, shredded foliage, bits of the rear fender and tyre tracks. We drove back to the junction and the policeman thanked me for all my help. They had already taken my details so I was free to go. The driver was still sitting by the side of the road, physically unhurt but still looking confused. I guess I’ll never know what exactly was going on in his mind.