Driver who killed 4 children in Saitama caused accident in May due to same reason

A 38-year-old man arrested for ramming his car into a group of children, killing four of them, in Kawaguchi, Saitama, last week, caused an accident in May due to careless driving for the same reason, police said Wednesday.

The driver, identified as Hideyuki Izawa, has told police that he lost control of his car while he was switching the cassette tapes in a boom box placed on the passenger seat. In the May accident, Izawa rear-ended a mini-vehicle stopped at a red light in Sugito-machi, Saitama. There were no injuriese. Izawa said that he was distracted while changing tapes at the time of that accident, as well.