Civilian attempts to assist in police chase, destroy suspect’s car with furious kick.
Shibuya’s Scramble Intersection is one of Tokyo’s most famous landmarks. Located directly outside Shibuya Station, where a number of train and subway lines converge, the intersection serves as the gateway to the neighborhood’s hundreds of shops, restaurants, and clubs, and the mass of people that makes its way across every time the walk sign comes on is a sight to see.
But the display of concentrated urban energy turned terrifying on the night of September 25 when, just before 10 p.m., a van ran a red light, speeding through the intersection while it was filled with pedestrians, with a police car in hot pursuit.
▼ Video of the incident, which took place at 9:55 p.m.
While running a red light presents a danger to pedestrians under any circumstances, it’s an even more perilous scenario at the Scramble Intersection, where traffic from all directions is shut down when the walk sign comes on to allow for diagonal crossing. And the van didn’t just barrel through the intersection once, either. As shown in the surveillance footage below, about 10 seconds after running the red light the driver makes a U-turn and comes through the intersection again, which had refilled with people thinking the danger had passed.
ついついやってしまう歩きスマホですが本当に道路を渡る時や階段などは絶対やらない方がいいです!!
— れな氏ᙏ̤̫͚ 大森 玲菜 (@re7123) September 25, 2017
ちなみにその後スクランブル交差点に向かって行ったので気になってyou tubeのライブ動画を見たらやっぱり映ってました。しかも一回去ったと思ったらすぐにまた交差点へ…
こわすぎる… pic.twitter.com/bK4LJ7Pqed
The chase began when the van fled from the police as the driver was being questioned by the police during a traffic stop. After the van’s second pass through the intersection, though, the officers deemed the pursuit too dangerous to continue The authorities are currently searching for the car and its owner.
Thankfully, no pedestrians were struck by the cars. However, one of the cars was struck by a pedestrian. As the van made its second pass through the Scramble Intersection, most people scattered, but one man, dressed in a green shirt and tan pants, can be seen turning towards the danger and giving the van a swift kick along its driver’s side as it passes by.
今日TVでしきりに流れてるこの渋谷スクランブル交差点の逃走暴走車に一人きりで蹴りで対抗して最高な間でコケたこの最高なオジサンをTV各局はいま必死で探してるだろうな(笑)。 pic.twitter.com/UuYHROtW12
— 横山シンスケ (@shinsuke4586) September 26, 2017
While Internet opinions are divided on whether his furious response was awesomely stupid or stupidly awesome, fan art has already begun to appear.
https://twitter.com/syannhai1/status/912630515517202433Unfortunately, so amount of righteous anger will give your physical strikes enough power to take down a car, and the kick did nothing to slow the escaping van down, If anything, the kick did more damage to the man himself, as his willful impact with the van spun him around and dumped him on his backside right in the middle of the intersection.
So let this be a lesson: leave apprehending criminals to the police, and beating up cars to the cast of classic fighting game Street Fighter.
Sources: Livedoor News via Jin, Yahoo! Japan News/Nitele News 24 via Hachima Kiko, Twitter/@re7123

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