U.S. Navy Lieutenant, who was sentenced in Japan, is back in United States custody
Ridge Alkonis, the U.S. Navy Lieutenant who was sentenced to three years in prison by a Japanese court, has returned to US custody. He was sentenced because of negligent driving resulting in the death of a couple of individuals. A third person was injured in this incident. Alkonis argued that he suffered from mountain sickness, which impacted his driving. He lost consciousness and subsequently lost control of his vehicle. The Japanese court rejected that argument.
From CNN:
“After 507 days, Lt. Ridge Alkonis is on his way home to the United States. We are encouraged by Ridge’s transfer back to the United States but cannot celebrate until Ridge has been reunited with his family,” the family statement said.
Two US officials confirmed on Thursday that Alkonis is in US custody. One of those officials told CNN he is being brought back to the US under an international prisoner convention which allows individuals to serve the remainder of their confinement in their home country.
When Alkonis arrives back in the US, “he will go before an entity called the US parole commission within the Department of Justice, which will consider his case and make a determination about further confinement,” the official said.
The Department of Justice declined to comment.
Alkonis, who was stationed in Japan, was sentenced to three years in a Japanese prison in October 2021 for negligent driving resulting in the death of two people and injuries to a third person in May 2021. He said he suffered from acute mountain sickness as he was driving with his family from Mount Fuji, which caused him to lose consciousness. That argument was rejected by the court. His appeal was denied in July 2022.
CNN has additional information here.
Category: Crime, International Affairs, Navy
Think it’s time for the NAVY to do a PP slap?
From The Asahi Shimbun (AP): A Navy officer jailed in Japan over a deadly car crash is transferred to U.S. custody, his family says
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15084597
Altitude sickness?
More likely alcohol sickness.
Nope. But way to jump the the wrong conclusion.
He has his own wiki page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge_Alkonis
Is there a trend or history of drivers
who go up the White Mountains (NH) or Pike’s Peak (CO) roadways,
and fall asleep and crash?
IMHO, “accident” is almost never the word to be used
in crashes that injure and kill others.
For some reason, the term “vehicular homicide” comes to mind, MD61. Ma Bell’s policy on accidents in a Company Vehicle we “your fault, their fault, nobody’s fault, it is still the fault of the driver.” Way back yonder during my uniformed service, we were told, “You violate a host country’s laws, you’ll be punished by them under their law. When you are released from that sentence, then we’ll do some UCMJ on you.”
Sounds like squid just got lucky.
After investigating collisions for more than 17 years I have never found one that was a pure “accident”. They were all the result of someone’s negligence or intent. Now keep in mind I was in the SW so there were no real snow driving situations or icy roads to speak of. In those cases I could see leaning towards a real accident but even then, excessive speed or lack of skill in driving in that kind of situation may still apply.
The elevation change from coastal Japan to Mt. Fuji is considerably greater than ascending Mt. Washington from coastal NH (almost double).
I’m not suggesting that mountain sickness had anything to do with it or that poor sleep management or some other factor isn’t more likely, just picking nits at that example.
Pike’s Peak from lowest Colorado is a much closer example, though still a bit shy.
I’m more curious as to what the typical sentencing is for vehicular whatever caused by falling asleep at the wheel (in either country).
What kind of altitude was he at, and for how long? I grew up in the Teton range, 6000 ft at the valley floor, local ski area was 7500 at the base, just under 10000 at the summit. Shortness of breath was common to the unacclimated but altitude sickness? Nope.