A 4-year-old girl died Wednesday after falling from the balcony of her 10th-floor apartment in Yokohama, police said Thursday. According to police, Momoka Wang, 4, was found sprawled on the ground beside the apartment block in Naka Ward, Yokohama, at approximately 3:30 p.m. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Police believe Momoka somehow climbed up over the balcony railing. Her mother, Tao Wang, was not at home at the time of the accident and the girl was alone, police said.
© News reports
28 Comments
Login to comment
abromofo
WHAT??? The poor little 4 year old girl was alone? I know the mother must be beside herself, but she was STUPID.
TheguyNextdoor
Damn.....what was so important that you left your daughter alone at home. R.I.P
TokyoGas
At home alone??!!! Terrible news story.
notimpressed
lack of affordable childcare support, especially for single mothers will lead to kids being left at home. Sad state of affairs.
fishy
WHY the HELL did the mother leave home without the little girl??? 4 year-olds are NOT old enough to be left alone for more than a few minutes!!!
Madara
Never leave a 4 year old at home alone.
Elbuda Mexicano
The mother must be real poor to have to go out and work and leave her 4 year old at home by herself? Or Really, really thick headed! I do agree, Japan needs affordable childcare support ASAP! This kind of horrible incident just breaks my heart! RIP poor little girl.
abromofo
To Moderators: I know "sprawled" is correct, but to me, it's just a little bit distasteful to describe the state of the in this way.
Coolasapool
agreed..
seriously, 4 year old left on her own?? what kind of person does that? even for a minute, that is unacceptable.
Kapuna
Are there any child abuse/neglect laws in Japan?
Jkanda
Did she go to work leaving the baby at home. I have heard that many night workers leave their children thinking the little ones will not wake up. Tao Wang sounds like a non-japanese name to me.
Altria
Nothing wrong with sprawled, it's a completely neutral word.
Prolly just a translation of うつぶせ
ratpack
Sadly most parents take the thought: It will never happen to me. The others are just so dumb they never think at all. RIP little one. A tragic accident that wouldn't have happened if your mother had brains.
moonknightskye
sprawled... I think we are old enough to imagine what will happen to a human body after falling from a high place. But adding this word makes us imagining some more... like broken bones and face down with crashed skulls... i mean the word "sprawled" is near to that and I think should not be used because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Going to the topic, its so sad that parents are too busy here in japan that they dont have time to look for their children. And im sick of hearing this heartbreaking news almost 3 times a month!
TSRnow
Yes, if it's a translation of utsubuse, a simple "faced down" sounds ...uh... better.
Too may of these tragic accidents. Far too many.
timorborder
Arrest the mother for child endangerment. Who in their right mind leaves a 4 year old home alone? Not much difference between this case and those clowns who allow their kids to die while the parents play pachinko.
Bento
moonknightskye..you may be old enough to imagine what might happen but why should you be protected from the actual image of death while you are entertained/informed(partially) reading about the event? Print the picture..force people to look at it before they post..that might just cause the air heads to move on before they suffer the world with their "wisdom"
sensei258
Our 2 grandchildren (ages 1 and 5) live with us. We moved into a 7th floor apartment recently. The first thing we did before the children even went into the apartment was to buy locks for the doors and windows. Then we nailed board across the windows (like guard rails) to make it impossible for a child to fall out. Oh, by the way, we never leave the children alone, ever! Stupid mother!!!
sensei258
correction - boards
nath
Many years ago, when my son was a small child, I stayed alone with him. Once I had to go to the toilet and I decided to leave him in the living room, while I use the toilet with open door and talking to him. When I came out some minutes later, some of the room seemed to be re-arranged and one wall was coloured by him :) ... From then I realised, that it's a must not to leave children alone ... not for one second, if possible. So, mother failed, daughter died. What a silly life she will have from now on...
Cliffy
4-year-old alone in the apartment? In US/Canada, the parents would be arrested and charged for child negligence and the child will be under the arms of social service right away.
smithinjapan
I'm sorry, but there are often so many things on balconies here that kids can climb onto it's easy to understand how this one did. Through lack of space or adequate places to hang them from, air conditioning exhaust fans are often put out on balcony floors, for example. A lot of other balconies have clutter simply because the apartments are too small to house all possessions.
Either way, this is very sad. She shouldn't have been let alone out on the balcony, let alone left alone at home.
usaexpat
This has been happening alot lately. We sold our mansion before my son could walk mostly over the fear that he would fall. We lived on the 6th floor and even though the balcony had a railing that he couldn't fit through it made us nervous. A 4 year old can't be left alone, my son is 4 and the mind boggles at the things he can get into if left on his own.
TumbleDry
I have been alone when I was 4 years old. I'm not dead nor my parents are insane. RIP little girl.
DeepAir65
sorry no disrespect but it must be a slow new day - why is this news? seems the norm to me :-(
DenDon
arrest the mother
Icewind007
The image of a person dead sprawled on the floor is pretty shocking. It may wake some people up to the matter, which is what news is supposed to do. It prevents this story from becoming a simple statistic.
Fadamor
Reporters are damned if they water-down the facts and damned if they provide accurate descriptions. The readers here seem to want the deaths reported for their entertainment. Accurately describing the condition of the body doesn't fit their nice, candyland view of how people die. They would prefer it if movies went back to the days where when someone gets shot, they arch their back with a pained expression on their face, then fall down. Blood just messes up their entertainment value so they'd rather it was eliminated completely.