TOKYO -- Police in Japan are taking aim at a new menace to road safety -- platform shoes.
The offending footwear, a must-have item for thousands of young Japanese girls, has been blamed for contributing to car accidents by slowing the time it takes for drivers to hit the brakes in an emergency.Police in Japan's second city of Osaka said on Friday they will ban drivers from wearing platforms if tests prove this to be true.
The move comes after a passenger died in a car crash last November when a young woman's heels prevented her from braking properly. Authorities elsewhere in Japan have already issued directives instructing drivers not to wear shoes "which would prevent safe driving."
Initial tests have backed up the theory, showing that drivers wearing platform shoes take a crucial fraction of a second longer to apply the brakes than drivers wearing normal shoes.
The outlandish shoes are a common sight in Japanese cities, usually on the feet of artificially tanned teenagers who also sport dyed blonde hair, skimpy skirts and glittering eye make-up.
But with the soles of some shoes reaching as high as 12 inches, health experts have warned they could cause painful injuries to ankles, feet and backs.