Family Pray for 3 Children Killed in Drunk-Driving Accident; Ogamis Say They Hope Similar Tragedies Will Not Recur

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:07 JST, August 24, 2025

FUKUOKA — The mother who lost her three children in an infamous drunk driving accident in Fukuoka in 2006 recently visited the site where it happened, along with her four children who were born afterward, to offer prayers in commemoration of the 19th anniversary of the tragedy.

Kaori Ogami, 48, placed a sunflower and prayed for the rest of her children at the accident site, the Umi no Nakamichi Ohashi Bridge on Tuesday.

It was the first time her children born after the accident — Aiko, 17, Mahiro, 15, Hikari, 13, and Hiroki, 8 — had visited the site.

On the night of Aug. 25, 2006, the car carrying the Ogami family was rear-ended by a vehicle driven by an intoxicated man who was then a city employee. The Ogami car crashed through the bridge railing and plunged about 15 meters into the sea below. Her sons Hiroaki, then 4 years old, and Tomoaki, 3, and her daughter Saaya, 1, died in the accident.

On Tuesday evening, Ogami and her living children placed one sunflower each near the railing, then sang a children’s hymn that Hiroaki used to sing.

Mahiro faced the sea and prayed, “May no one suffer from another accident like the one 19 years ago.” Tears welled up in the eyes of Aiko and the others as they sat in prayer.