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2-year-old girl dies after being hit by vehicle in supermarket car park

23 Comments

Police said Thursday that a two-year-old girl died after she was hit by a car in the parking lot of a supermarket in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture.

According to police, the incident occurred at about 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. TV Asahi quoted police as saying that the girl and her mother had finished shopping when the child ran ahead of her mother and was hit by a car driven by a 59-year-old woman. The girl, who was identified as Hina Ishii, was taken to hospital with head injuries, but died about six hours later, TV Asahi reported.

The driver of the car was quoted by police as saying she didn't notice the girl as she was pulling into the car park.

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23 Comments
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Nigelboy came close to saying there are no accidents. Events that result in unhappy endings are no more accidents than happy endings. If a large vehicle runs over a small child, is the resulting damage accidental? I used to attach a three foot rope I attached to my belt around my youngest son. Too many people drive in crowded parking areas at much too high a speed, anyway. The speed should be a slow walk speed.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@nigelboyb "Yep. It's always "not my kids because I do this and that blah blah blah". Why criticize when posters are trying to offer helpful advice? Using a child restraint etc. self-evidently reduces the chance of an accident. Of course, someone could plow into both of you or you could lose your grip at the wrong moment. No-one is saying if you do x,y and z you have 0.00% chance of an accident. However, just saying "unfortunate events aligned" seems unnecessarily fatalistic when effective risk-reducing actions are possible

Why criticize them? Because you may still think you are practicing due diligence in regards to your own child safety but the reality of the matter is that unless you are a robot, there is no doubt that said individual had, one time or another, had their child run forward despite your continuous warnings or lose the sight of your child just for an instant. That's what "accidents" are. Millions of millions of children being exposed to the inherent dangers outside where possibility of such incidents can occur to many. Some are fortunate and some are unfortunate when "events" I stated aligned.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

and now lesson for the new parents .... put your child first inside the car so they can't run and they can't play at the parking lot too dangerous yano.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I remember the days of trying to shop and manage a cart full of shopping and 3 kids under 8 through a carpark.

Man alive! Do people have mother-in-laws? Does anyone ever think to ask one of the local grannies for some help while shopping? Or hire a baby sitter? You cannot manage 3 kids under 8 properly by yourself on a shopping trip even if you did get lucky!

I can think of three local grannies in my neighborhood right now who would babysit or be overjoyed to help out on a shopping trip.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Horribly tragic...I hope more parents try to be careful but..like many have said there are many ways this will happen over and over again. I once saw a mother arms heavy with diaper bags and other children's play things and a small baby in her arm. Her 2 year old took off running through the parking lot and headed straight for a busy road. She shouted many times "STOP! STOP RIGHT NOW!!" the girl ignored her and kept running her friend who had an older child walking with her ran and grabbed her and pulled her away before she made it for the main road. Her mother just went "geeeez! that is dangerous!" and that was it...no..real reprimand or anything this child was laughing and tried to do it again but mom grabbed her arm and forced her into her mini van and closed the door without strapping the kid into a seat and drove off..meanwhile I just stood there shocked over it all..parents..for the love of all that is good and great protect your children properly!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yep. It's always "not my kids because I do this and that blah blah blah".

I recall watching a TV segment a year or two ago of a mother who lost her child as a result of getting hit by an automoble. She went on to say that prior to the unfortunate accident, she too use echo the same thing when she would hear stories like this. "What were the mother doing?? I would of never let this happen to my child". Despite her confidence, there is just that one time where all of the unfortunate events aligned where the child walked in front of her ahead, car approached, and the driver just happened to take his eyes off the front because he was searching for a space.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

I don't see how we can possibly blame the driver (and to a lesser extent the mother) without knowing all the details. At 5:30 it's entirely possible that the sun was in the driver's eyes. If the child suddenly ran out from behind a car just as the car was approaching then it would have been impossible to stop in time no matter how slowly the car had been going. As for the mother, perhaps she had allowed her daughter to run on far ahead of her. Or perhaps just as they were approaching the end of a car her child suddenly bolted and her hands were full of bags of groceries at the time. No doubt both women are now feeling horrible. Let's not be so quick to criticize an event that we did not witness and only know the barest of information. As someone else mentioned, if you have a child who made it to adulthood you should praise the gods for your good luck as I can guarantee that at least once in your child's life, he or she did something suddenly or unexpectedly and you were caught off guard. Fortunately when it happened it wasn't the one time out of ten thousand that would have resulted in tragedy. I'll be blessed with a boy in a little more than a month and I've been terrified throughout my wife's whole pregnancy and I'm sure it probably be terrified for my boy's safety his entire life. Despite my concern I don't doubt that at some point in his life I'll be caught off guard and I hope that I'm luckier than this young mother.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I remember the days of trying to shop and manage a cart full of shopping and 3 kids under 8 through a carpark. But you do it because you have to and you do it as safely as you can - the baby in the cart and the two older ones holding on to the cart if you cant manage to push it one handed and hold at least one of their hands. It was drilled into them from as soon as they could understand never to run around in a car park. It could be that this simply was a tragic accident - maybe the little girl let go of the cart and was off before Mum could grab her. But given that I used wo see lots of kids running around car parks on a daily basis while Mum was glued to the phone or otherwise not paying attention I somehow doubt it. And now a little one is dead :(

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The woman is 59 years old so all the comment about old folks needing driving tests and be quiet. Perhaps parents in Japan should be given tests on parenting? I can imagine it now - a two year old running ahead of mom without a care in the world and some poor driver hitting something and not knowing what. Tragic for both families but at two you need to keep them close to you - blah blah blah it is impossible... No, it isn't. Priorities folks, priorities. Your kids or your groceries.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This is so sad!! Yes it can happen even to the best parents and all it takes is one split second for all hell to break loose!! And Game Over!! RIP little girl up in Fukushima

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A totally avoidable death and parent and driver are both to blame. What parent would let a 2 year-old run ahead of them in a carpark? Its common sense to put a deathgrip on their hand until they are safely in the car.

The driver also shares blame as she was obviously driving too fast. Any driver with common sense (especially in Japan with so many braindead parents around) assumes kids will be darting in and out of traffic.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Two year olds are not too heavy to carry. If anything should get ahead of you in a parking lot, its the cart you are pushing with your other hand.

Can't handle them all? Shop at places that have child seats in the cart. Push it to your car. Insert child. Return cart.

Blame the driver? Heck no! Japanese car parks are already sheer madness. Driver's have limited vision and cannot hear much outside the car. Parents need to hang on their kids, because no driver will ever have see-through vision or six million dollar woman hearing no matter how much you pray, how much you scream, or how many you toss in jail. Welcome to reality.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Yes smith since it's unavoidable let us all allow our 2 year olds to run around in busy parking lots.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Not only in Japan (however I should probably add 'especially' in Japan), people over a certain age should have compulsory driving tests to see if they are still safe drivers. Actually, where I live, most people are hopeless drivers. I am often surprised that people like the ones I see don't cause many accidents. Kids on bicycles too. Head down, texting, veering all over the place. How they don't get hit by a car baffles me.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

tripbeetle: "Drivers must be constantly and acutely aware of everything and everyone around them - and awake to worst possible scenarios - especially when driving through places like carparks."

And mothers must be constantly and acutely aware of everything and anything that might go wrong when they have a little 2 year old walking with them - and awake to worst possible scenarios - especially when walking through places like carparks.

I have seen this far too many times in car parks where kids just wander off like they are at a park and there mothers and/or fathers just watch from afar as if all will be fine. Commonsense commonsense commonsense.

5 ( +5 / -1 )

tripbeetle: "Drivers must be constantly and acutely aware of everything and everyone around them - and awake to worst possible scenarios - especially when driving through places like carparks."

If a kid jumps out in front of a car, slow as the car may be going, it can cause an accident -- not the car, the kid. Nothing short of a leash put tightly to the mother could have stopped this. Yes, drivers must be accutely aware of what's around them, but it's a well-known fact that you canNOT see everything around you, especially if it jumps out from behind a car. I reiterate, this is a tragic accident that those involved (still alive) are no doubt wishing this and that instead of what happened, but that is no one's fault.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

smithinjapan wrote: "This is the kind of accident that happens and that isn't really anyone's fault" Disagree. As soon as anyone starts driving as if driving is a routine activity, they should quit. Drivers must be constantly and acutely aware of everything and everyone around them - and awake to worst possible scenarios - especially when driving through places like carparks.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

This is the kind of accident that happens and that isn't really anyone's fault. Kids will be kids and run ahead or off away from parents, even in places where it can hurt or kill them. RIP.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Tragic. 2 years old, running free in a car park! Another avoidable death of a child.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

As a parent, I have had my own close calls with a young kid. Stories like this just go to show, I was lucky. So is everyone with a kid that has grown up.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Tragic story :( Accidents like this can happen to anyone with a little kid...

0 ( +2 / -2 )

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