Two dead, 8 injured after elderly driver plows into pedestrians in Tokyo

The vehicle, driven by a man in his 80s, struck the pedestrians at a crosswalk and then hit a garbage truck in the busy Ikebukuro district of Tokyo, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

A woman in her 20s and a young girl around 2-year-old believed to be her daughter, are feared to have died in the collision, local media reported, saying they were both found in a comatose, unresponsive state.

The collision occurred around 12:30 p.m. local time near the Higashi-Ikebukuro subway station, which serves the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line and carries about 43,000 passengers daily.

As well as a large post office, the area close to the site of the collision also includes the expansive Sunshine City complex, which includes the 240-meter-tall Sunshine 60 skyscraper, a lure for shoppers, tourists and business people.

Japan's "silver tsunami" demographic crisis, which is set to worsen, has made the topic of elderly drivers a national talking point, with such accidents rarely out of the headlines these days.

Drivers aged 75 or older, including those who had not taken a cognition test, caused 418 fatal accidents in 2017 alone of which 41 percent were vehicle collisions and 19 percent involved collisions between vehicles and pedestrians.

According to the data from Japan's National Police Agency (NPA), 194 people died in accidents caused by drivers suspected of having dementia or impaired cognition, and cases where drivers mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal before causing a fatal accident where almost eight times higher among the elderly during the reporting period.

Under a revised traffic law that took effect in March 2017, drivers aged 75 or older are required to see a doctor in the preliminary part of the screening if they are suspected of having dementia.

The NPA has reported that around 1,900 elderly drivers had their licenses revoked or suspended after undergoing medical tests in the first year under the revised traffic law.