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A 4-year-old girl on Sunday afternoon drowned in a sewage drain near a farm in Hokuei, Tottori Prefecture. She was taken to hospital after being found about 200 meters away from where she fell into the drain, but died later.
According to police, Kana Taguchi, 4, was found by her brother, 7, in a 6-meter deep sewage drain for agriculture around 1:10 p.m. The boy went for his parents. Police said there were no fences or barriers alongside the drain.
© Japan Today
12 Comments
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rjd_jr
Where were the parents, I repeat, where were the parents???
Hughgarse
The 7 year old "boy went for his parents"... where were they?? the kid was 4 for crying out loud...
jpdrag0n
oh great, here come the barrage of "where were the parents" trolls on JT. lets blame the parents for not watching their kids 24/7. i played unsupervised when i was 5 or so...i didnt die. she unfortunately wasnt so lucky.
serindipity
So, you admit it was luck you survived an unsupervised childhood, hey jpdrag0n?
Very sad event indeed. It was a 6m deep sewerage drain with no fencing in an area where, obviously, children are playing. It sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Possibly some of the blame could go to the parents for allowing the children to pay in an unsafe area although, I'd place the blame on the local water authority for failing to secure such a deadly pit.
Zen_Builder
Sad Tragedy and sorry for the parents.
Yet there are many, many more kids out there playing unsupervised and have done so for centuries and millenia.
Can't recall anyone in my generation being supervised when we were out and playing. Yup, some broke limbs, bloody knees and elbows, etc but that was part of the fun of growing up.
Did we do stuff that we were forbidden to do, you can bet on it. And we knew we would face the music if we were found out.
My 7r old son is out in the park playing with his friends every weekend, they also go together to the library, walk to school, etc.
To be honest I have him rather playing in the park with friends and maybe coming home with a bloody knee than him parking in front the telly with a game-controller and munching on snacks for hours.
Just my view.
smartacus
jpdrag0n The parents were negligent, no question about it. I've said this a million and one times. Here goes again. Parental supervision of young children in this country is appalling. And I couldn't care less about whether such accidents happen in other countries, or how many readers were left unsupervised when they were 5.
Children that young should never be left unsupervised near water, railway tracks, on platforms, balconies, escalators and car parks. It doesn't matter how busy a parent is, or what they are doing. With having a child comes great responsibility and that must come first, before anything else the adult is doing at the time.
Altria
Always going to be a certain percentage of these accidents, unfortunately.
Spidey
I'm in accordance with smartacus on this one. Yes, these things happen. And yes, they will continue to happen. And double YES, these things can be prevented! When we look back at our own cultures, let's say about 20 to 30 years ago, we as societies would do things that we would never dream of today. Not buckling up our kids among other things come to mind. (Japan being the exception) We were all raised in, I hope, a more naive society when it came to known dangers. Our experiences have taught us that in order to survive we must learn from our mistakes. And as a general rule, societies generally learn and evolve.(Again Japan not applicable)
WE KNOW BETTER NOW!!
Do we always have to argue about what "WAS" when it has no bearing on what "IS"!?
Just because some of us were LUCKY to survive doesn't mean that our kids will be!
S
Triple888
Weren't they barriers or warning signs? And the parents?
RepublicofTexas
Yes, the parents should have supervised better, but i think whoever's in charge of the drain should have had it secured.
JeromeInJapan
Jp you play unsupervised yeah we hear that but... did u play on a sewage farm?
LFRAgain
Methinks some posters' recollections of how much they weren't supervised as 4-year olds are being viewed through some very rose-tinted glasses. Trust me: You were being watched by someone and it's that that kept you alive long enough to post here, and not luck so much.
Young children need to be supervised. If that involves watching them 24/7, then so be it. That's the responsibility that comes part and parcel with becoming a parent. Parents who can't or won't accept that responsibility are faced with tragedies like this more often than parents who do.