US traffic laws lost in translation for Japanese
Print Edition
The first night in the United States for a family of Japanese tourists ended with the parents being pulled from their rental car at gunpoint with their young son watching, after their confusion about American traffic laws set off a high-speed pursuit in southern Utah.
The drama began 1am last Saturday on Interstate 15 near the Utah-Arizona border when the couple’s car was spotted going just 60 kilometers per hour and swerving between lanes, said Lieutenant Brad Horne, Utah Highway Patrol’s driving under the influence unit commander.
Horne said he figured the car was being driven by a drunken driver and turned on his lights and siren to pull the car over.
Instead, the driver sped up to 120kph and began driving erratically, he said. Her speeds fluctuated between 64 and 120kph as she weaved across lanes and into the shoulder.
Soon, there were three patrol cars in pursuit with other officers closing highway off ramps and setting tire spikes.
The couple’s car skidded to a stop 11 kilometers north, after three of the tires deflated after hitting the spikes.
Officers prepared to encounter hardened criminals. Instead, a Japanese woman in her early 40s emerged.
“She would walk forward, backward, spin around — obviously she had no clue what we wanted her to do,” Horne said.
Officers approached the car with guns drawn and pulled the woman and a man from the vehicle. That’s when they saw the couple’s 7-year-old son in the backseat and realized the family didn’t speak English.
“I think they were terrified,” Horne said.
Officers got a Japanese-speaking colleague on the phone who learned from the couple that they arrived from Japan on Friday morning and rented a car.
The woman said she had no idea what she was supposed to do when the patrolman put on his lights and siren, so she sped up to get out of the way.
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