5 injured as car driven by elderly man hits pedestrians at sidewalk in Tokyo's Shinjuku

Police investigators collecting evidence at the site of an accident in Tokyo, where an elderly driver mounted the kerb and hit several pedestrians, on Jan 16, 2019. PHOTO: YOMIURI SHIMBUN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

TOKYO (XINHUA) - A car driven by an elderly man mounted a sidewalk in Tokyo's busy Shinjuku district on Wednesday (Jan 16) and injured five pedestrians, local police said.

According to the police, the incident occurred at around 1.30pm local time on a busy shopping street in Shinjuku.

The crash occurred around 100m east of JR Shinjuku Station, a major transport hub in central Tokyo.

The police quoted the 79-year-old driver as saying that before he realised what was going on, he had already crashed his car.

"I had already crashed the car before I realised it," the driver said, adding that he was choking after drinking some tea.

A total of five pedestrians were injured in the incident, the police said, including a man in his 80s and a woman in her 20s who have both been described as sustaining serious injuries.

Their injuries, however, were not deemed to be life-threatening, the police said.

The police also said the driver himself suffered minor injuries in the crash, as did his 76-year-old wife, who was also in the car when it mounted the kerb and hit the pedestrians.

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