Tag: drunk driving

Iwakuni Based U.S. Marine Receives Suspended Sentence After Car Theft, Drunk Driving, and Causing an Accident

| June 20, 2023

This Marine got off pretty light with a two year suspended sentence considering what he did:

This screenshot from an All Nippon News report shows security camera footage from a car dealer in Iwakuni, Japan, Dec. 3, 2022.

This screenshot from an All Nippon News report shows security camera footage from a car dealer in Iwakuni, Japan, Dec. 3, 2022. (ANN)

A Marine whose conduct a Japanese judge described as “bold, violent and vicious” received a two-year suspended sentence Friday for stealing a car, driving drunk and injuring two others in a collision.

Lance Cpl. Dominic Youngren pleaded guilty June 6 to illegal entry, theft, drunken driving and negligent driving in December. He was formally convicted and sentenced Friday by Judge Soshi Okada in Yamaguchi District Court in Iwakuni city.

Youngren, an F-35B Lightning II mechanic with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 242 at the air station, broke into an Iwakuni car dealership at 7:08 a.m. Dec. 3, according to a case summary of Okada’s remarks in court.

The Marine took a key to a car worth $38,000 and drove away in it at 7:57 a.m., drunk, according to the summary. These were “bold, violent and vicious” acts, the judge said.

After driving more than 2 ½ miles on city streets, Youngren rear-ended a car at a stop light, according to the summary. The other driver and a passenger suffered neck and back injuries that required 10 days of treatment. 

Youngren left the scene without reporting the accident, Okada said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but according to the article the Marine paid $1,400 in restitution to the car dealership, apologized, and promised to never drink again. That was enough to get his sentence suspended.

Drunk Driving US Marine Kills Japanese Man In Early Morning Collision on Okinawa

| November 20, 2017

For everyone on Okinawa get ready for likely major anti-US protests due to what this idiot did:

A Japanese driver’s damaged vehicle is placed at a police station in Naha, Okinawa, southern Japan Sunday, Nov. 19, 2017. Police on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa are investigating a fatal traffic accident that occurred Sunday when a truck driven by a U.S. Marine collided with the small truck at an intersection, killing the Japanese driver of the other vehicle. KAZUKI SAWADA/KYODO NEWS VIA AP

An Okinawa-based Marine’s blood-alcohol content was triple Japan’s legal limit Sunday when his vehicle collided with a minitruck, killing its Japanese driver, police say.

The Marine was “slightly injured” in the 5:30 a.m. JST crash at a Naha intersection, Okinawa policeman Kazuhiko Miyagi told The Associated Press.

The victim – a 61-year-old man – was making a turn when his vehicle was hit by the servicemember’s truck, which was coming in the opposite direction, Japanese media reports said. Witness accounts say the Japanese driver had the right of way, and that the Marine may have gone through a red light.

Miyagi told AP that a breath test indicated the servicemember had a blood-alcohol level that was three times Japan’s legal limit of 0.03 percent.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but three time the legal limit would be a BAC of .09.  So he was not completely smashed, but regardless would be legally drunk in the United States as well.  The highest limit in the US is a BAC of .08.  Then there is the fact he was driving a military vehicle.  If he was drunk on duty that makes this even worse or did he steal the vehicle?  I guess we will eventually find out what happened, but condolences to the family of the deceased driver.  There is never an excuse to drive drunk especially some place with easy access to taxis like Okinawa.