Student killed in small landslide on street in Kanagawa Pref

Now that is some bad luck! What are the chances? Poor girl. Only 18 and had her whole life in front of her.

Doesn’t look to be a very good place to build an apartment block either.

this is the path that school age children walk to school on everyday. several other places exactly like this one within 1km. someone needs to go to jail for this negligence. some of those places were flagged years ago and nothing done.

Talk about unlucky.

Agree, if it has already been recognised as potentially hazardous, the question arises as to how long ago (it’s possible it was only highlighted recently and there has not been time to act, but that is why the question of when is so relevant) and why nothing was done to mitigate the danger.

Also who was responsible if their was a failure of duty.

There are TONS of places all around Japan where similar things could happen, all the towns & cities with buildings build up on slopes, roads along slopes, hills can have this happen.

RIP!!

this is the path that school age children walk to school on everyday. several other places exactly like this one within 1km. someone needs to go to jail for this negligence. some of those places were flagged years ago and nothing done

It's actually a residential street. The path to the school is on the main street ( but agreed, equally hazardous).

This is the location (cut n paste into google maps), have a look on streetview. I'd be very surprised if they don't build a full height retaining wall shortly. Currently it's really, really dodgy. The towering condos obviously have their footing zone of influence well outside any supporting structure.

google location:

35.3056328, 139.5964905

RIP innocent one. Hopefully your passing saves others.

Looking at the site on tv from many angles, it appears as a disaster just waiting to happen.

It was declared as a high risk danger 9 years ago by authorities.

They said they couldn't enforce anything because the land belongs collectively to the mansion owners built above. The mansion had been made aware of this and apparently no action was ever undertaken.

But it does amaze me though, that in the interest of public safety, govt can't overide private land-owners. I wonder if this is true.

Not far from my house is a similar looking landscape, albeit with no mansion atop. A road runs along the base of the "cliff" and there is a support wall quite a few meters high. Above that the vegetated area is covered along way up with steel rope meshing, effectively netting the whole area.

If such action had been done in Yokohama, it may well have prevented the simple mass slip and at least broken up or diverted the mud and rubble.

Possibly the biggest danger to Japan in coming years is the massive under maintenance of the aging built infrastructure. $Billions on boogy radar defense, but a trickle to keep citizens safe in their daily lives.

A wake up call - sadly.

So it is the property owners who will have to face a court action for their failure to act? Can they be prosecuted for negligence?

nasty, what means flagged as dangerous? where there flags or signs saying so ? what did they do about fixing it ? some heads better roll in gov.

It’s sad this young lady died, but not unexpected. It seems the Japanese love sheer faces on hills with a little concrete as reinforcement. That’s a recipe for a landslide.

No recent heavy rains or significant quakes. Was there construction nearby sending out vibrations? Or just really freaky bad timing. Poor girl. Poor family.

You never know if today is your last day.

@forgetaboutit

Do you live around there or something? You seem to know quite a bit. I’m kind of wondering why you got thumbs down?

In California, they have built large pre-cast reinforced concrete walls, along the banks of a canyon road, mimicking the shape of the geology, several feet high to prevent landslides.

Sadly, there are far too many incidents like this throughout Japan -- inevitable to some degree in a mountainous country with seasonal torrential rain. Long term non-visible loosening of soil is a ticking time bomb. I have seen the same occur in certain European countries. So sad that a young life was lost.

Nothing to do with awareness, you don't have eyes on your head. When a subsidence occurs, it's instant. Drop a rock from 10 metres up and see if you could notice it and dash away.

The only thing that could have made a difference is to engineer out this dodgy situation in the first place. The solution isn't that expensive either, google 'gabian wall'.

However, the prefectural government had previously flagged the area as being at high risk of such an incident.

Rain appears not to be to blame for the slide as there has not been any in the area since last Thursday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Blame it on the rain!bIt's not the rain's fault! It is the fault of the local government for not fencing off the area after it was declared a danger zone.

This young lad has had her life taken by inaction by a government who is supposed to protect its citizens.

Scary!

However, the prefectural government had previously flagged the area as being at high risk of such an incident.

Here's hoping they took some action regarding this high risk area, otherwise they're going to find themselves on the end of a huge compensation claim.

Yeesh, what a terrible series of events. Only a minute or two being in the wrong place at the right time... just a few minutes difference and this young lady would still be alive.

This picture is,of course, identical to the walk down the hill from Zama Station.

I thought very seriously, this could happen at any moment, in any number of places walking up and down that hill....I was right.

This poor young woman was most likely going through entrance exams for university - studying hard, stressed, under pressure, spending what little spare time she had enjoying herself however she most liked to. What a tragedy, and an awful loss for her family and friends.

zichiFeb. 5 11:12 pm JST

But it does amaze me though, that in the interest of public safety, govt can't overide private land-owners. I wonder if this is true.

That is correct. The local government/ward office can't do anything on private land without the permission of the owners.

Zichi - thanks for that.

All very interesting as local residents interviewd on tv last night said that recently rocks have been falling / rolling down onto the pavement.

So as a matter of public safety, where danger to persons can easily be recognised, govt authorities, officials, and even the police have no sway against the rights of the landowners.

I know landowners have strict rights, but this was not a case of ugly scenery or hoarding rubbish or being obnoxiously loud, but rather a life or death scenario.

Be interesting to challenge this in a court - but it will never happen.

@englisc aspyrgend

This tragedy is not about 'rights', it is about responsibility.

The local municipal government has a responsibility to people walking on a public footpath (western world = duty of care).

The local municipal government also 'had' a responsibility in approving the original plans. A 'Development Permit' was issued, and subsequent 'Construction Permit' was also issued for what is essentially non-compliant development. The municipal government has responsibility for this process NOT the unit owners nor the owner's association. As far as the owners are concerned, Approvals means everything has been complied with, that was the pretext to the owner's purchase.

This incident makes a mockery of the building and construction laws in Japan, even Vietnam enforce its development for stringently, and it's a poor developing country.

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/travel/places/illegal-hotel-on-northern-highlands-scenic-spot-to-be-demolished-3993336.html

"However, the prefectural government had previously flagged the area as being at high risk of such an incident."

I can see how the meeting went there: "ok guys, seems dangerous, so we're gonna flag it has high risk, say nothing to the people that pass by everyday, and of course we'll wait for an incident to do something about. Everybody's ok? Done"

What are the odd of this to even happen... really.

How can you even explain this tragedy to the parent?

Everyone is turning on the local government, even though they apparently have no powers over strict property rights. I approve of the protection of the rights of the individual and am not in favour of the state taking them away. But rights come with concomitant obligations, so the ones to be criticised are the owners of the land who have done nothing to prevent their property from endangering others.