Many people in Japan were enraged early this year when a court sentenced a former Fukuoka city employee to only seven and a half years (the maximum allowed under the law, and only about twice the sentence a guy got recently for cutting down some trees) for a hit-and-run accident in 2006. The man was drunk when took off after driving his car into a vehicle that was stopped on a bridge, causing it to plunge into the waters of Hakata Bay with a family of five inside. The adults survived, but all three of their children (ages 4, 3, and 1) drowned, despite frantic efforts by the parents to save them.

Now the word is that the man’s lawyers have filed an appeal with the Fukuoka High Court, saying that the victims should bear some of the blame for their vehicle going off the bridge.

“The car carrying the victims did not have the brake applied or steering wheel handled for about 40 meters until it fell into the sea after it was collided with. We want an analysis of the circumstances of the accident to see that responsibility is apportioned properly,” one of the lawyers said.