90-year-old man dies after snow falls off roof onto him

Usually these stories involve an old man up on a roof. This wise man stayed off the roof, so the snow came down to him. Really, really sad.

@SenseNotSoCommon, you couldn't find a single case where the victim actually died, could you? In Japan roof snow casualties happen every year, in Canada nobody dies...

@hokkaidoguy in quebec we can get up to 4m a year, especially recently, but if you head just a little north to mont ste-anne it gets over 6m sometimes. If you want to talk about records though one city in B.C. got 24 meters one year lol. That's not my point though, my point is Japan only has a very small region that actually gets ANY legitimate amount of snowfall, whereas Canada gets snowfall literally everywhere. Hokkaido could fit inside Canada 120 times over.

@aspara we have much more total snowfall throughout canada, yet I've never heard of it happening here, yet I read about it happening in Japan every year..?

@jumpultimatestars Sapporo averages near 6m of snow every winter. Yoichi gets substantially more. Not many places in canada get anything close to that amount of snow.

we have much more total snowfall throughout canada, yet I've never heard of it happening here

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/boy-found-buried-in-snow-remains-in-critical-condition-1.2501720

http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/young-girl-buried-by-snow-sliding-off-roof/Content?oid=2159654

The heqvy snow is only part of the problem here in Japan, but why oh why would anybody let a 90 year old man live all by himself in a dangerous part of snow country Japan?? This is the real social problem hwrw in Japan as supposed to say Canada.

Yes, it does, Elbuda- one of the hazards of living in an area that gets heavy snowfalls- what is your point? I'm sure Japan isn't the only snowy country on earth where this happens?

As Scott said ' I'm just stepping out for a moment" sad to go that way after so many winters.

why oh why would anybody let a 90 year old man live all by himself in a dangerous part of snow country Japan?? This is the real social problem

Apart from declaring the old person incapable and incarcerating them against their will in an institution, there's not much anyone can do about oldies who insist they can manage for themselves. We had a 93-year-old relative pass away recently, alone in her rackety old house in the mountains. Family visited her regularly to check up on her, bring her shopping etc., and tried to persuade her to either move in with one of them or move into supervised accommodation, but she would hear none of it, and there was nothing anyone could do legally. We console ourselves with the thought that to the end she lived as she wanted, independent. She didn't have to cope with snow, but her front door was at the top of a flight of steep, slippery steps that even younger folk had to negotiate with care.

It's the flip side of living in a free country; people are free to be obstinate and make bad decisions. RIP to the old man in the snow and to our old obasan. And to the poor son who had to find his Dad like that.

We phoned my wife's 101 year-old father in Obihiro, Hokkaido from our home in North Carolina last night. It took us several attempts to get him on the phone because, as he told us when he finally did answer the phone, he had been outside shoveling show.

101 years old?? And does he live out there by himself?? One of my grandmothers was the same as Cleo says, some old folk prefer their independence, their pride, etc...RIP??

Rest his soul. One of the things that surprises me is that 90 yr. olds are still maintaining this type of activity in Japan. The "genki" demonstrated by the better half of Japan's 85 and up population was really something to see for me.

too old to be outside.

It took us several attempts to get him on the phone because, as he told us when he finally did answer the phone, he had been outside shoveling show.

I can just imagine....He's outside, hears the phone ringing, trudges indoors, struggles out of his wellies, reaches the phone just as it stops ringing. Climbs back into his wellies, goes outside, the phone rings again...... xn times. You need to persuade him to get a phone that shows the number and/or name of the last caller, so when he knows it's you he can call from his end. I imagine he's a worry to you and your wife, but good on the old chap for keeping active (assuming he's doing it safely and not climbing on the roof) well past his Sell By date.

I hate to say it but this happens in Japan every year!!