1-year-old boy falls to death from 6th floor

Ayayay.....rip little one

Is it wrong that I always think the mother killed the child?

Why does this seem to be a regular occurence in Japan; maybe stronger screen are needed, or screens with better locks? Such a tragedy for the family.

Very suspicious. Seems unlikely that a child regardless of age would simply crawl out of a window from a 6th story window. A one year old is more instinctive than you'd think, I don't believe he simply crawled to his death.

Could have been prevented by a 100 yen window lock.

Is it wrong that I always think the mother killed the child?

Yes

Why does this seem to be a regular occurence in Japan

High portion of the population living in high rises.

3 small children + live on the 6th floor + complacent parenting = another dead child

How do you know the parenting was complacent?

Coincidentally i live in a 6th floor apartment and have a kid who will be turning one soon. I think this sort of tragedy is so common here because of how crowded most people's apartments are.

We had to get rid of a fair amount of furniture, including our bed, because keeping everything would have created too many stepping stones that placed windows in reach. Since we just have one kid it was possible for us to do it, but i can imagine trying to squeeze a family if 5 into a 2ldk or 3ldk like most families here do. The clutter is more or less impossible to avoid and it seems almost inevitable that having a shelf in the wrong place or something like that will create a path for a little one to climb up.

It would be nice if safety concerns like this were incorporated into building designs more. Our windows just have one little latch that is easily opened to secure them and once they are open it is a free fall right to the asphalt below. Even with our furniture out of the way we always have to be vigilant - absent mindedly put a box down in the wrong place for a moment and turn your back for a second and you could have a tragedy on your hands. Our next place we will definitely be living closer to the ground floor, just for our own peace of mind.

Very suspicious. Seems unlikely that a child regardless of age would simply crawl out of a window from a 6th story window.

No, not suspicious at all, just a tragic accident. A 1 year old just does not have a developed enough sense of danger or judgement to know better - how can they? I feel so sorry for the parents - they will never recover.

@strangerland and @rainyday have this exactly right.

None of us know the exact circumstances here. We don't know the nature of the apartment, its contents, what was going on in the room that the children were playing in, and the like.

So, let's come at this from several perspectives. First, should the parent(s) have done a better job of child proofing the apartment? OK, possibly, but, again, how can anyone make that accusation without knowing the facts?

Second, perhaps most damning, why did the mother let the 1 year child out of her sight and assume that the child was safe with the older siblings? OK, fair point on the surface, but, again, depending on the room in which they are playing, she may have assumed it was OK. And given that she likely needed to get stuff done to be able to take care of her 3 kids, she made a choice.

I hate backseat/helicopter parenting. I am not saying mistakes weren't made here. I am saying none of us have enough facts to level any accusations. And, more importantly, sometimes I think readers expect parents to be the equivalent of God, being omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. Which they aren't. Most of the times. they are trying their best to take care of their children as best they can given their own circumstances.

I have a one year old and he always does dangerous things like slide screen doors, or indeed doors themselves after hitching the locks or run into screen doors at full speed, he is also staggeringly good at climbing. I'd be too terrified to live in anything taller than a house. There is always an adult with him, but the is so fast, there will always be moments and opportunities to do something dangerous.

In general I would say that Japanese are not as safety conscious as people are in say the UK, examples are windows with long drops, subverts with no barriers to protect tickets falling in, unprotected train lines, lack of sidewalks, no bicycle helmits etc.. I guess the reason is because people don't sue so readily when things go wrong, do companies don't care much about safety and therefore employees are not taught as much about safety our required to think about it, which also added schools and therefore children. In this case I feel devastated for the parents. But talking more generally and theoretically, if the parents sued their landlord and the judge agreed a window not safe for children was unacceptable, in future companies would have to train their employees about safety and teachers their pupils and this window would im future have childproofing and the parents would gave been more likely to foresee the danger having been more safety consciously brought up. But to reiterate I very much doubt this case is reasonably the parents fault it was probably a perfect storm of bad luck. Unfortunately babies have no understanding of a height that could kill them. So sad to hear this, I hope it spurs some action on safety, but it probably won't.

How do you know the parenting was complacent?

Because she has 3 small children, lived on the sixth floor, and didn't take precautions. Years ago, we lived on the 7th floor of an older apartment. When I found out two of our grandchildren would be moving in with us, the first thing I did before they moved in was install locks on all the doors and windows. That cost me less than 700 yen. Then, as an extra precaution, I installed wooden rails across their bedroom window so they couldn't crash through it while playing.

Careless parents, that is all. All mother's and father's fault.

Because she has 3 small children, lived on the sixth floor, and didn't take precautions.

How do you know she didn't take precautions?

Careless parents, that is all. All mother's and father's fault.

Well you know what they say about opinions.

Seems to be a whole lot of baseless assumptions going on in this thread. And here I was thinking JT posters were starting to get a little more intelligent.

How do you know she didn't take precautions?

The screen on the bedroom window was half-open

If she had installed locks so that the window (doesn't matter where the screen was) couldn't open far enough, this wouldn't have happened.

I agree with Strangerland completely. There's simply not enough to outright condemn the parents for complacency or apathy. We don't know the circumstances of the accident. All we know is that a toddler died after falling through a window.

I also agree with others, however, that accidents of this type are largely preventable with a relatively small investment in screen and window locks and/or safety bars. I bought and installed these on the windows in my home the day we moved in, knowing perfectly well that kids' predilection for climbing and heights can be a deadly combination.

I feel for the parents. This is going to be hard for them to recover from.

If the one year old is not in a special bed it should be supervised, period. RIP little one.

Cant imagine the pain and feeling of "what if..." she is going through right now.

Just so very sad!

There's simply not enough to outright condemn the parents for complacency or apathy

Then what would you call it when there's three small children who live on the sixth floor, and the mother didn't install locks?

Then what would you call it when there's three small children who live on the sixth floor, and the mother didn't install locks?

How do you know the mother didn't install locks?

@Strangerland typical you are coming on here attacking posters. It is about accepting responsibility. Mother should have foreseen the danger of living on such a high floor with 3 little ones to the extent of making dang sure they could not open those windows. The father too. Stop being a keyboard warrior. Kid is still dead and the parents are still at fault, PERIOD!

@Strangerland typical you are coming on here attacking posters.

Are you reading someone else's posts? I haven't attacked anyone in this thread.

Mother should have foreseen the danger of living on such a high floor with 3 little ones to the extent of making dang sure they could not open those windows.

How do you know she didn't?

Pretty sad event, but I agree it should not have happened. It's something the sisters are gonna have to live with for the rest of their lives. The information is pretty limited I this article, but a lot of the older apartment blocks do not have any kind of safety locks or screens on them. However, the mother should have known better and that accidents do happen when you leave kids in a room with an open window. I bet she never leaves the window open again.

How do you know the mother didn't install locks?

Because the window was open.

Or are you implying one of those small children was able to undo the lock, that the lock was properly installed but somehow failed, or perhaps that the mother opened the lock for a perfectly logical reason and was somehow distracted at that moment by something more important than her children's safety?

People!....whether the parents are guilty of neglect or not we probably will never know. Maybe they installed locks maybe they didn't. The fact was the poor kid managed to get out.

I think the parents are feeling pretty bad just now.

Blaming folk is not the answer. Finding ways of stopping this happening again is!!

There could be folk reading this now and because of another folks misfortune are taking steps with their own childrens security and safety.

That's good right?

Because the window was open.

How do you know there weren't locks on the open window?

Or are you implying one of those small children was able to undo the lock

Maybe.

that the lock was properly installed but somehow failed

Maybe.

or perhaps that the mother opened the lock for a perfectly logical reason and was somehow distracted at that moment by something more important than her children's safety?

Maybe.

See, you've come up with all sorts of possibilities other than what you've considered a forgone conclusion. I could come up with a number of other possibilities as well.

My point being that you are condemning without enough information on which to condemn.

If properly installed (the mom's responsibility), there's no way even a 5 year old (the biggest of the 3) would be able to undo the lock.

Even if the lock was properly installed, but failed, it's still the mom's responsibility to make sure it's functioning properly

What could she be distracted by that's more important than the safety of her three children?

If properly installed (the mom's responsibility), there's no way even a 5 year old (the biggest of the 3) would be able to undo the lock.

How do you know that it wasn't a defective lock? How do you know that the 5 year old wasn't a genius who figured a way around the child proofing? How do you know that someone else that wasn't one of the parents didn't come into the room, open the window, and forget to close it? How do you know... etc etc etc.

What could she be distracted by that's more important than the safety of her three children?

How do you know she was distracted by something? How do you know that it was more important than the children? How do you know it wasn't just an accident etc etc etc.

The fact is, you know nothing more than was written in this article, and that's not enough to make an accurate conclusion as to what happened.

@sensei258,

Sorry, but I am with @strangerland on this. We don't have all of the details on this. We can make a number of assumptions on what was/was not done and on the precautions taken/not taken, but the article doesn't provide enough information to provide a definitive diagnosis.

Finally, all parents make choices when it comes to their children and their well-being. Back seat drivers, know-it-alls and non-parents all seem to be able to tell them EXACTLY what they should or should't have done in any given situation. And, yet, they aren't there and they don't know the exact circumstances facing the parent(s).

You can condemn the mother on the basis of the information in this article if you want, but I will choose to sympathize with her and mourn the loss of her child.

See, you've come up with all sorts of possibilities

In one post you agree those are possibilities

How do you know... etc etc etc

And in your next you argue against them

I'm not arguing against any of them. I have no idea what actually happened... and neither do you.

What happened was the baby fell out of a window that was not secured by the mother.

What happened was the baby fell out of a window that was not secured by the mother.

How do you know the mother didn't secure it?

Because a one year old fell out of it.

That's a non sequitur. Your conclusion can't logically be reached base on your reason. Other possibilities that follow from your reasoning are:

The mother did secure it, but someone else opened it

The mother did secure it, but it was a defective product

The mother did secure it, but the installation was done incorrectly

The baby didn't actually fall, but was pushed/thrown out the window

The baby is a genius and figured out how to open it

The baby was playing with it, and somehow accidentally opened it

And I'm sure there are more.

So once again, I don't know what happened, and neither do you.

It was not secure when the baby fell out, and that is the mother's responsibility, especially when the room held 3 small children

Now you're changing your stance. First it was 'the mother didn't secure it', now it's 'she didn't ensure it was secured'.

And again, how do you know she didn't ensure it was secured? Read my last list of reasons - some of those are still applicable. Maybe it was a defective latch, or maybe it was installed incorrectly.

So I'll say it again - I don't know what actually happened (other than that a baby fell out of the window) and neither do you.

Baby fell out, window not secure

That I can agree with.

That's all we know. Nothing more.

baby's safety mother's responsibility

It sure is.

But that doesn't mean it's her fault. To many other variables.

window open, baby fall

That's pretty insightful there.

mother no make window safe before placing children in room

mother no make window safe before placing children in room

How do you know she didn't?

How do you know the latch wasn't defective, or that it wasn't installed correctly?

This happens far too often in Japan... one is far too many! RIP little boy :'(

Mothers fault