A man in his 60s riding his bicycle fell on a railroad crossing and was subsequently struck and killed by his bicycle which was sent hurling into him by the train, police said Sunday.
According to police, the incident occurred at around 5:30 p.m. at a Seibu Ikebukuro line crossing in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward.
Police said the man was riding his bike across the tracks when it tumbled over, Sankei Shimbun reported. The train driver applied the emergency brake but the train hit the bicycle, sending it flying into the man who had crawled about two meters away.
When police arrived at the scene, they found the man bleeding from chest injuries. He was taken to hospital where he died about two hours later.
© Japan Today
18 Comments
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Wakarimasen
Cycling in Japan is not for the fainthearted.
savethegaijin
Final destination stuff right there. Man.
SenseNotSoCommon
Nasty! That's a busy part of Tokyo, and it's tempting to take a risk on crossings. Let's be careful.
smithinjapan
Does the crossing not have guides that go down? Did he fall down before then, trying to beat the train, or go through them?
Aly Rustom
That's quite the freak accident. To be killed by your own bicycle flung at you by a train is indeed very unusual. RIP. May you be in a better and more peaceful place.
Strangerland
Bad luck! RIP old guy.
A.N. Other
I don't get this. Was he knocked unconscious by the fall from his bicycle, or was he impatient and crossed when the barriers were down?
Disillusioned
It would seem this old fella was another one of these fools that race the boom gates.
Tsuchifumazu
I live on the Seibu-Ikebukuro line and this happened somewhere between Ikebukuro, and two stations down the line at Higashi-Nagaski. All the crossings have barriers that go down so I'm sure the poor dude was trying to cut across the line with the barriers down. I'll make a guess and say it happened at Higashi-Nagasaki where the express trains fly by within 15 or 20 seconds after the barriers come down. Not much time to make a mistake. RIP.
patty cake champion
It's hard to imagine a highly developed city like Tokyo still has level crossings on commuter rail.
sensei258
Savethegaijin you took the words right outa my mouth
Bill Murphy
"It's hard to imagine a highly developed city like Tokyo still has level crossings on commuter rail."
Believe it. I, gaijin, dismount when there are numerous people crossing such as mothers on bicycles with 2 or 3 children aboard or Chinese home delivery scooters trying to beat the next train especially at non-motorized vehicle crossings. The full circumstances of this case were not reported. The people in this country are not the most situationally aware so, unless you want to see "rail kills", keep an eye out for your neighbor.
timtak
@Bill Murphy
There is a lot of research which demonstrates the reverse, that Japanese are more aware of the surrounding situation than Westerners who tend to be more narrow-focused. This research is summarised in PowerPoint slides here http://goo.gl/A3qhax.
Dennis Bauer
@timtak
That has not been my experience, Staring at the ground or glued to their smartphone, and just going through red lights (without noticing).
Monozuki
The first thing that came to my mind was the man was drunk. Actually, I afterward found FNN News reporting he was spotted being drunk about an hour before the odd accident. RIP old man.
ensnaturae2
Tokyo..all Japan..wonderful for cycling. Many, huge wide pavements so you dont have to ride on the road ..
bullfighter
I guess I'm not fainthearted. I've cycled all over hell and gone in Japan and not just Tokyo. And anyone who actually gets off his butt and cycles will know that you cannot generalize about a whole country or even a whole city.
New York City has them within the city itself, quite a few more if you consider the suburbs. Chicago has them and in the Chicago commuting area there are several places where heavy rail commuter trains run down the middle of city streets.