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An 82-year-old woman suffering from dementia was hit and killed by a train in Niigata City after she entered the railway tracks on Sunday afternoon.
According to police and local media reports, the incident occurred just before 4 p.m. along the JR Hakushin Line in Ishiyama, Higashi Ward. The train hit the woman, who lived nearby. Police said the woman's family told them she was going for a walk -- which she often did -- 30 minutes before the incident.
The victim's relatives said she had been showing signs of dementia recently.
The accident site was on a railroad track 1.6 kilometers west of Higashi-Niigata Station, with no safety fence to prevent anyone from walking onto the tracks.
None of the 230 passengers on the train were injured in the incident.
© NIIGATA
5 Comments
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Naumov Danila
Oh, hey, where were THE SAFETY BARRIERS?!
Badge213
The accident didn't happen at any station, but along the railway line, which there are places that are open and not fenced off. It' not the Yamanote line where the whole loop is fenced off all around.
Naumov Danila
I believe it is extremely simple to wall off he rails with cheap fences to prevent cases like that one at least.
mtuffizi
family should not let her walk alone if she has dementia. sad way to die.
sandiegoluv
First of all the family should not have let her go walking around by herself if she had dementia. However, there are many stages to dementia. So, I wonder how serious it was...
Once again thought, this could have been avoided. There are some companies that are putting walkways and roads under the train tracks. But not most of them. Yes, it is costly but it is something that needs to be done. It will cut down on traffic jams especially during peak rush hour times and it will prevent these accident. So tired of some railways companies doing little to nothing to protect the public.
And even though she had dementia and was let out, I still don't think they should be sued. I'd prefer if they sued the railroad for not doing much more to prevent the public from entering the railroad tracks. This can happen with senior citizens, people who cross the tracks because they are late, or the little four year old who dropped his toy on the tracks, suddenly yanked away from his pregnant mother and ran back onto the tracks to get it and was instantly killed many, many years ago near my house. More has to be done, not just business as usual.
RIP Lady!