The Yokosuka Municipal Government in Kanagawa Prefecture on Monday awarded certificates of gratitude to nine people, including six U.S. military servicemen, who joined in the rescue of a family from a car that had plummeted from the fifth floor of a parking garage last month.
The city fire department said their help enabled rescue workers to quickly take the injured to hospitals.
Six personnel from the U.S. Navy and Marines happened to be at the accident site in Yokosuka on Dec. 31. They together with three Japanese pedestrians pulled the injured from the crashed car.
The accident left three dead and two seriously injured, all members of a family from Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, the police said.
The police suspect the driver made an error when parking the vehicle, and while backing up broke through a 1.2-meter-high fence before plunging 13 meters to the street below at around 12:50 p.m.
The garage is near the U.S. Yokosuka naval base.
