CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — A Marine struck and killed by a car Sept. 16 on the Okinawa Expressway was identified by Marine officials Monday as Pfc. Jacob L. McCutcheon.
McCutcheon, 19, apparently was asleep in the toll road’s passing lane when he was struck at 12:38 a.m. Friday by a car driven by a 19-year-old tourist from mainland Japan, according to Oklinawa police investigators. McCutcheon, assigned to the 9th Engineer Support Battalion, 3rd Force Service Support Group on Camp Hansen, was pronounced dead of massive head injuries at 1:25 a.m. at Hokubu Hospital in Nago.
The accident occurred about a half mile north of the highway’s Kin exit, where Camp Hansen is located. The driver of the car said he did not see the Marine until it was too late to stop, police said. The highway is not lighted.
“The Marine Corps expresses their condolences to McCutcheon’s family and is working with Japanese police to determine the cause of the unfortunate accident,” 2nd Lt. Antony Andrious, media relations officer for Marines on Okinawa, stated in a news release. “We lost a member of our family. We share in the sorrow felt by his loved ones and we must not forget the valuable contribution that he made to his country.”
Okinawa police investigators said Tuesday they still were puzzled about why McCutcheon was lying in the roadway. There are no pedestrian paths along the toll road; no other vehicle was parked near the accident scene.
McCutcheon’s body was taken to the U.S. Naval Hospital at Camp Lester for an autopsy. Okinawa police on Tuesday said they had not received the results.
An Okinawa police spokesman said the Japanese driver was not intoxicated and was traveling the speed limit. He was traveling in the northbound lane, toward Nago, when the accident occurred.
“We have no clue as to why the Marine was there, apparently asleep in the road,” the police spokesman said. “We are not ruling out foul play but it is most likely just a tragic accident.”
An examination of the body at the accident scene revealed no wounds other than the trauma to his head, the police spokesman explained.
