YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The Naval Air Facility Atsugi sailor who police allege crashed his car into a Japanese family’s van while under the influence of alcohol has not been questioned yet, police said Friday.
“We expect that it would be a month or two before we can refer the case to the prosecutor’s office,” said a spokesman for Kanagawa prefectural police in Yokosuka.
The incident occurred July 2 in Yokosuka when police say Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeremy Ryan Vandermeulen swerved into the oncoming lane of traffic on Highway 134 around 9:30 p.m. and collided with a van carrying a Yokohama woman, her husband and their four children.
A 6-year-old boy was hospitalized, but is stable and recovering from a fractured thighbone, the spokesman said. Vandermeulen fractured a rib.
According to the police, the sailor’s blood alcohol level was 0.6 milligrams of alcohol per liter, which exceeds Japan’s legal limit of 0.15 milligrams per liter.
Vandermeulen received medical treatment at Atsugi’s Branch Medical Clinic after the accident. Japanese police said they’d question him after he recovers.