27th December 2025 – (Osaka) A car veered onto a pavement near Namba Station in central Osaka on the afternoon of 27th December, injuring three people and sending them to hospital. All of the casualties are reported to have sustained minor injuries. The driver, a man in his 60s, later told authorities he had mistakenly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake.
The incident occurred in a busy commercial district outside Nankai Electric Railway’s Namba Station, an area typically crowded with pedestrians. According to reports from Japan’s public broadcaster NHK and Fuji News Network (FNN), a small truck was travelling along Midosuji Avenue in Osaka’s Chuo Ward when it first struck a roadside tree before continuing onto the pavement.
Among the three people taken to hospital were a man in his 30s, a man in his 20s and a girl believed to be under 10 years old.
Police said the driver, who is in his sixties, stated that he had “incorrectly operated the accelerator and the brake”. Investigators currently believe the crash was caused by driver error and are examining the precise circumstances surrounding the incident.
A male witness in his twenties described the moment of impact, saying a vehicle travelling from north to south suddenly swerved diagonally towards them and hit a tree. He recalled standing just over two metres away and escaping injury, but noted that the area was crowded and that some people ended up lying on the ground after the collision.
AloJapan.com