Japan, Jan 6 /KyodoAPP): A court fined Japanese actor Ryoko Hirosue 700,000 yen ($4,470) for negligent driving resulting in injury after she rear-ended a trailer truck on an expressway in central Japan in April last year, leaving a male passenger in her vehicle with a fracture.
The Kakegawa Summary Court in Shizuoka Prefecture issued the fine after prosecutors sought summary proceedings against Hirosue, 45, last month. She was not pursued by prosecutors over allegations that she assaulted a nurse at the hospital where she was taken after the accident.
A summary indictment allows prosecutors to seek a fine through written procedures without a formal trial.
The indictment said the accident occurred at around 6:45 p.m. on April 7 on the Shin-Tomei Expressway in Shizuoka Prefecture, with Hirosue said to have been driving at about 185 kilometers per hour before the crash.
She was taken to a hospital in the prefecture, where she allegedly kicked the female nurse multiple times, leading to her arrest the following day. She was later released.
Hirosue, who rose to fame in the 1990s, appeared in a string of TV dramas such as “Beach Boys” and starred in films including the Oscar-winning “Departures.”