Monday, November 19, 2007

Police investigator arrested for crashing car while driving drunk

SHIMONOSEKI, Yamaguchi -- A police investigator has been arrested for causing a car crash on a national highway here while driving under the influence of alcohol, police said.

Yukio Yasuda, 51, a sergeant at Shimonoseki Police Station's second criminal investigation division, stands accused of violating the Road Traffic Law. He admitted to the allegations during questioning.

"I drank four or five glasses of shochu (a kind of distilled liquor) before driving. I'm terribly sorry," Yasuda was quoted as telling his bosses.

Yamaguchi Prefectural Police were apologetic about the incident. "It's indeed regrettable. We'll take strict punitive measures against him after getting to the bottom of the incident," said Sadao Ishida, a senior official with the force's inspection office.

At around 9:55 p.m. on Sunday, Yasuda crashed his car into a vehicle that was stopped at a red traffic light along Route 9 in Shimonoseki, local police said. A breath test found that he was under the influence of alcohol. The 41-year-old woman who was driving the car that was crashed by Yasuda's vehicle was not injured.

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