Elderly drivers are wreaking havoc on Japan's roads

A man takes a nap on a bench in the Hibiya park in Tokyo, Thursday, June 8, 2017. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

(Bloomberg) – In the past several weeks alone, elderly Japanese drivers have been wreaking havoc across the country: breaking through median barriers into oncoming traffic, plowing over pedestrians crossing the road, and smashing into other cars. In all these cases, somebody was killed.

And as Japan’s population continues to age — meaning more and more older drivers are behind the wheel — the problem is only getting worse: Drivers aged 75 and over were connected to 459 fatal accidents last year, 13% of Japan’s total, up from 7.4% a decade earlier, National Policy Agency data show. Stopping the carnage on the roads is an “urgent problem,” the agency said in a statement.