Tsu, Mie Pref., Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Tsu District Court on Tuesday sentenced a former truck driver to seven years in prison for an expressway crash that killed six people, including three children, in Mie Prefecture, western Japan, in March.

The seven-year sentence for Mitsuyo Mizutani, 55, came as requested by the prosecution. Judge Hiroaki Deguchi said, "This is one of the most serious cases ever of negligent driving resulting in death."

According to the ruling, Mizutani was driving a truck at about 82 kilometers per hour, above the speed limit, on the Shin-Meishin Expressway in the Mie city of Kameyama, while looking at her smartphone before dawn on March 20.

The truck plowed into a line of vehicles in a traffic jam, killing Keizo Takamine, then 56, from the city of Soka, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, as well as Koji Matsumoto, then 45, and his four family members from the city of Fukuroi, Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan.

The court acknowledged that Mizutani was watching the short-video sharing app TikTok on her smartphone for over 10 seconds to take a screenshot of a video at the time of the accident, neglecting to check for safety.

The Nonobori tunnel on the Shin-Meishin Expressway in Kameyama, Mie Prefecture, where the fatal accident involving four vehicles occurred on March 20

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]