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6-year-old boy dies after being hit by truck

18 Comments

A 6-year-old boy died after being hit by a truck in Yokohama, police said Wednesday.

According to police, the incident happened at around 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday in Hodogaya Ward. TV Asahi reported that the boy, identified as Ryuto Kaneko, was going down a slope on his kick scooter and was hit by the truck as he entered a crossing.

He was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead a short time later.

Police quoted the truck driver as saying that the boy seemed to suddenly appear out of nowhere.

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18 Comments
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Rest in peace, little one.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I actually feel bad for the truck driver on this one ... it sounds like the kid came flying out of nowhere at a reasonably high speed.

Why a 6 year old boy was out at that time alone is beyond me.. I dont remember being allowed outside in the evenings until much older. Regardless very sad indeed - RIP little guy

6 ( +8 / -2 )

kimuzukashiiiii: Why a 6 year old boy was out at that time alone is beyond me.. I dont remember being allowed outside in the evenings until much older.

Seriously? It was 6:45 on a summer evening. My parents were strict but even we were allowed out until at least 8 in the summer. It would've still been light and he may have been coming from a friend's house right nearby. Yes, this is definitely a tragedy for the boy, his family and the truck driver but trying to subtly suggest that the parents were at fault is jumping the gun a bit with what little information is given in this story.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

As much as I say truck drivers are the rudest and most heinous drivers around, I think this truck driver is not at fault. This little boy came out from nowhere and it should not have been allowed to happen. No one wins today. Rest in peace little one.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

6 is that age where as a parent you feel you should give them a bit more responsibility or trust them a bit more to do stuff by themselves but the dangers are still pretty high. I have a six year od myself. Unimaginable what the parents must be going through right now. A tragedy all round.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Hard to know who was wrong,the driver,the irresponsible parents.Surely not a 6 year old child. RIP

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Yeah, the kid 'may' have suddenly appeared, but how many times have you seen a truck or a car trying to break the land speed record to get through an orange or freshly red light?

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

that is prejudiced disillusioned.

Also I wasn't allowed to wander the streets without supervision until at least a couple years older.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I do not think you can fault the truck driver here but I always have problems with truck drivers in Japan as they are very rude. I feel for the parents and may everyone learn that if you are on a bike or on a skateboard or any other form of non-motorized vehicle to always look for traffic. Teach your children that there may be a car or truck coming and can not stop as quickly as a bicycle or skateboard. teach your children so that this does not happen to them.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

It is clearly the fault of the tyke. Scootered out into traffic and wham-o. Very sad, indeed.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

We may have been allowed out as kids in the Summer at the age of 6, but how many of us were allowed out to play on a scooter right next to a road that trucks come down? Not many, I would bet.

I feel for the parents, but I just get sick of this attitude in Japan of "daijoubu! Ichi nensei da kara". As if the moment you enter elementary school you are somehow magically able to deal with everything responsibly. I dont blame the parents, they probably believed they were doing what was right based on what every other parent around them is doing. But honestly - when is it ever ok to let a child that young go out unsupervised and alone near a busy road?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

ChibaChick: I understand what you're saying and also hate that parental attitude but we have so few details to go on here that it's all just assumptions. We don't know that the parents weren't nearby and the kid just scootered ahead or that he was going the distance of 50 meters from a friend's house to his house. The story is a headline and exactly 5 sentences. We could just as easily make negative assumptions about the truck driver since his profession isn't exactly known for having careful, courteous drivers in this country. If I had 50 yen for every time I saw a truck driver reading a manga while he rode I'd be a millionaire. Still, we have no real details.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

An excellent point Ambrosia - you are right, I have no idea if the boy was alone here or not. But in general - in Japan - I see unsupervised 6 year olds and younger out all the time, even alongside busy roads. So its certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility that he was alone. However - point taken - we dont know that for sure.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

ChibaChick: I hear you and completely agree. It's just that whenever a kid has an accident here everyone is so quick to blame the parents. I know that 6 is young but my brothers and sisters and I were allowed a great deal of freedom at that age. My parents were definitely not helicopter parents! We didn't live in a big city but there were plenty of ways for us to get hurt and we often did. Sometimes it was because we disobeyed our parents, sometimes it was because they weren't watching us and sometimes it was because an older sibling tasked to watch us wasn't doing so. Still, being allowed freedom helped turn us all into independent adults with street smarts and general common sense, albeit adults with plenty of scars too. If he were even a year or two younger I'd also wonder where the heck the parents were but I do think 6 is old enough for short solo trips within the neighborhood, if this was a solo trip. Also, I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt just until we have a few more details. They've got to be going through hell right now and even if they were inadvertently negligent or just momentarily inattentive a little compassion costs us nothing.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

You are right Ambrosia, everyone is quick to blame the parents. But I think most of us have been witness to neglligent parenting many times and we all get a bit sick of having to rescue someone elses child from the middle of the street because the parent is 20 meters ahead and glued to the cellphone, if they are even there at all.

I also grew up like you did - kicked out after breakfast and out all day until dusk. But there were no dangerous roads near us, we were always in a group, the neghbours who were the only ones in the cul de sac street watched out for us, etc etc. Not that we didnt also get into trouble but I dont consider falling out of a tree and breaking a bone a preventable injury in a child - they have to live and learn a little. But a road traffic death IS an entirely preventable accident.

I actually have to humbly disagree on your feeling that 6 is old enough for short solo trips in the neighbourhood. Sorry! We lived in a very safe area in Tokyo, but no way would I have let my 6 year old out alone (other than to go to school which was in a group and supervised all the way). At age 8 I allowed her to go to the conbini across the very quiet street and back for me. I dont think I am an especially protective parent (although maybe I am now I compare my style to yours??!) but I made the decision based on neighbourhood circumstances whether I thought my kids personally were ready for it and deemed they werent. Other people in the neighbourhood were letting their kids out to the public park by themselves at age 5. That was their choice, although I privately disagreed with it.

Id like to think I was giving the parents the benefit of the doubt by saying that they were doing what they thought was right based on their culture, if he was out alone. And honestly, if they were there and monmentarily took their eyes off him, then I fully admit it, there but for the grace of God go I and many other parents Im sure. BUT - the fact remains, too many very young children are out and about unsupervised in Japan in my opinion. Feel free to disagree though - Im more than happy to debate it with someone who is reasonable and/or a parent themselves in Japan. I suppose convesely one of the great things about being a kid in Japan IS that freedom. And I have to admit I come at this kind of burned because an acquaintance of mine allowed her 7 year old daughter out alone to the park where one day not so long ago she was picked up and molested, so that may be coloring my view of unaccompanied children somewhat :(

Now we are in the US I allow the kids out on their bikes all the time into what we call the "white zone" - we have 4 houses grouped in a circle with a central courtyard and no one except the 4 houses residents come in and out so it is perfectly safe, even for the 3 year old.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

An all around tragedy. RIP to the little one.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

ChibaChick: Again, I understand what you're saying and appreciate it. I certainly don't disagree that I see a lot of oblivious parents in Tokyo who I'd like to smack upside the head. As you well know though, kids here are encouraged to walk to and from school from a relatively young age. I know that they usually go in groups but there are plenty of kids that I see and that you must've seen walking by themselves. By and large, they get from A to B without incident. Yes, one tragic incident like this is too many, especially for those poor parents, but I stand by my assertion that for short trips (I did say he might've only been as far as 50 meters from home) 6 is old enough. I add the caveat that it depends on the maturity of the child, of course. Every parent should make their decisions based, as you said, on the circumstances and their personal feeling as to what their child is ready to do independently. To paraphrase what you said, falling out of a tree and getting injured seemed natural to you and to me too. To others our parents were negligent. Of course, had we fallen, hit our heads or broken our necks and died, in today's overprotective world, our parents would probably have gone to jail.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

My boy's 6. I cannot imagine the heartbreak this must be for his parents... and I hope I never have to. Complete tragedy.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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