A fatal accident in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on Sept. 11 claimed the life of a 73-year-old woman when a taxi driver apparently developed a health problem and slammed into the sidewalk. The driver died the following morning. (Video by Toshiyuki Hayashi and Masahiro Hirano)

Photo/Illutration The crumpled front of the taxi after it rammed a roadside tree in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on Sept. 11 (Toshiyuki Hayashi)

A Tokyo taxi driver apparently abruptly stricken by an unspecified health problem slammed into a sidewalk in the capital's Chiyoda Ward on Sept. 11, killing one person and injuring four others, before the vehicle rammed a roadside tree and came to a stop.

Kumiko Kobayashi, a 73-year-old pedestrian and resident of Shinagawa Ward, was killed, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

The driver, Hitoshi Yamamoto, 64, of Suginami Ward, was found unconscious and in a critical condition. He died the following day, police said.

The male taxi passenger, who is in his 30s, suffered serious injuries.

Others injured by the out-of-control taxi were a man in his 40s who was riding his bicycle, a 9-year-old girl and a woman in her 60s who was walking nearby.

The incident occurred around 4:20 p.m. on a straight road with two lanes in each direction in the Kudan district. The crash scene was about 300 meters southeast of Tokyo Metro’s Kudanshita Station and in the vicinity of the Chiyoda Ward office building.

The taxi was moving in the left lane when it swiped the bicyclist near the sidewalk and then veered toward the center line of the road, only to suddenly change direction again and plow into the sidewalk.

Police mounted an initial investigation on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in injury and death.

An eyewitness reported that the taxi traveled “abnormally,” according to an investigative source.

Police believe the accident may have stemmed from a sudden change in the driver’s health condition.

Kobayashi, the pedestrian who died, was out on the sidewalk to see off a guest who had attended a meeting of her private group held in the Chiyoda Ward office building.

A similar incident involving a taxi in January in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward left one person dead and five with serious and light injuries on the Koshu Kaido road. The driver was believed to have suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage at the time and later died after prolonged hospitalization.

Transport ministry data shows there were 363 cases in 2018 in which taxi, truck or bus drivers developed health problems while driving and caused accidents or stopped.

In 2013, there were 135 such incidents.

(This story was written by Emi Iwata, Shingo Tsuru and Hidemasa Yoshizawa.)

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