Fatal Accident of Pregnant Woman: Plea That ‘Fetus Is Also a Victim’ Must Be Taken Seriously

Editorial

14:59 JST, September 13, 2025

The child born to a woman killed in a traffic accident suffered severe disabilities. Is not the child a victim of the accident? The bereaved family’s plea demanding criminal liability for the perpetrator over the baby must be taken seriously.

In May, on a municipal road in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, Sayaka Togitani, who was nine months pregnant, was fatally struck by a passenger car approaching from behind while out walking. The baby girl was delivered immediately afterward by emergency cesarean section but suffered severe brain damage and remains unconscious.

Prosecutors indicted the unemployed woman driving the car for negligent driving causing death in violation of the Law on Punishment of Acts Inflicting Death or Injury on Others by Driving a Motor Vehicle, etc. The baby girl was not included as a victim in the indictment.

The woman’s husband, Yudai, said, “Isn’t our daughter, whose future was taken away by this accident, a victim?”

The baby girl was given the name Hinami. She has never opened her eyes or cried. She cannot survive without a ventilator, and her chances of recovery are said to be low.

It is understandable that the bereaved family cannot accept that the baby girl, who lives with severe disabilities, is not considered a victim of the accident.

There have been cases in which perpetrators were found guilty because injuries sustained while in the womb affected a child after birth.

The 1988 Supreme Court decision concerning Kumamoto Minamata disease recognized criminal liability for former executives of a company that released harmful substances over the death of a boy who developed the disease while in his mother’s womb and died at the age of 12.

In 2003, the Kagoshima District Court ruled that professional negligence had been established over the injuries sustained by a girl during a collision between two vehicles while she was a fetus.

However, such rulings are not widely established. This is because the Penal Code does not recognize a fetus as a person. Proving a causal link between the accident and the harm to the fetus is also difficult. In the latest case, the hurdle for the prosecutors to recognize the baby girl as a victim was probably high.

Yudai has collected and submitted over 112,000 online signatures to date, demanding prosecutors seek criminal liability for negligent driving leading to the injuries to the baby girl.

At the first hearing of the defendant’s trial held at the Ichinomiya branch of the Nagoya District Court, prosecutors announced they will conduct supplementary investigations into the girl’s injuries. This is an unusual move. The bereaved family’s earnest plea may have influenced the prosecutors.

The bereaved family’s appeal also raises questions over the conventional operation of law, which does not recognize a fetus as a person.

Going forward, the prosecutors will determine whether the defendant can be held criminally responsible for the harm to the girl. The prosecutors are urged to carry out all necessary investigations.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 13, 2025)