A man and his two children drowned in a small lake Friday while fishing in Ohiramura, Miyagi Prefecture, police said Saturday.
The victims were identified as Katsushi Otomo, 36, and his two sons, Haruto, 9, and Hinata, 5.
According to police, Otomo, his wife and their sons had gone fishing at the lake at around 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Fuji TV reported. At 7:40 p.m., Otomo’s wife, who had remained in the car, called 110 and said that her husband and two sons were missing.
Police and firefighters searched the lake and found Otomo and his sons who were all in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest. They were taken to hospital where they were confirmed dead.
Police believe the boys might have fallen into the lake and that their father got into difficulties when he went into the water to try and save them.
© Japan Today
14 Comments
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SenseNotSoCommon
Life vests.
Disillusioned
Life vests? How about swimming lessons? Kids if 5 and 9 years old should be very competent swimmers, especially boys. A very sad end to a Sunday outing with your boys.
cleo
Why especially boys?
Competent swimmers or not, fully clothed in a lake in the evening is quite different from better prepared in a pool in good light. Around water, there should be one adult to supervise each child. One kid can get into all kinds of trouble while the other kid has temporarily taken your attention. Poor mother. She should have gone with them, even if she wasn't interested in fishing.
Brian Wheway
This tragic loss of life could have been prevented simply buying a life vest or floats. very sad.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Because girls tend to not suddenly up and want to go fishing or boating, that's why. Boys do. If they want to do it tomorrow, its too late to teach them. Yeah, some girls do take an interest as well. But its less common. Nothing sexist about that that is not just plain the work of Mother Nature.
Life vests first. Even competent swimmers should wear them when doing some other water activity that isn't swimming, where they are wearing clothes and shoes and are not really prepared for a swim. Cheap used ones can be found at Hard Off and other places, as low as 1000 yen. Even brand new ones can found at a reasonable prices like 3000 yen. Usually more like 5000 yen though.
TheGodfather
I am not saying that I don't believe a word of it, but there is something decidedly fishy about this story.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fishy
DaDude
RIP and thoughts/prayers to the wife. These types of story make me A: get my son so some swimming lessons asap and B: Stay away from any body of water until he can swim with ease.
sf2k
really? no life jackets? Where is the safety training in Japan? That's got to be the most basic of basics
Clare Yoshida
Can't imagine the grief the wife must be going through.. devastating. Agree with life vests though.
Ah_so
I have a photo of me on a fishing trip way back in the 70s as a toddler wearing a life jacket - even in those less health and safety obsessed times, that was common sense.
Cleo - ideally, but that is not always realistic. What you really need is more than one adult so that if one adult needs to intervene, there is another to keep an eye on things.
ThePBot
How about fishing on the shoreline?
Sparky Santos
Why are we assuming they weren't wearing vests? Panic and exhaustion also can kill.
panamacanal
It's strange to me how in a country where not only a jetski rider requires a license but also any passenger... that one could somehow go out on a body of water without lifejackets ...especially for kids.
cleo
I mustn't be very girly, then....(not the fishing, but boating, swimming, anything to do with water)