Five people were injured on Tuesday night after a man committed suicide by jumping from a platform into the path of an express train in Kobe. The impact hurled his body back onto the platform where he hit and injured five commuters.
According to police and JR West officials, the incident occurred at around 6 p.m. at JR Nada Station on the Tokaido Line, Kyodo News reported. A station employee called 119 and said several people had been injured in the incident.
The five injured people, two men and three women ranging in age from their 30s to 60s, were taken to hospital to be treated for minor injuries. The man who jumped in front of the train was declared dead at the scene.
The train was on its way from Kusatsu Station in Shiga Prefecture to Himeji Station in Hyogo Prefecture, JR West said. No passengers on the train were injured. Train services were delayed for about an hour, JR said.
If you or someone you know in Japan are having suicidal thoughts, you can get help. Click here for more info.
© Japan Today
31 Comments
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clown world
Mission accomplished... RIP
William Bjornson
Those injured people won't be forgetting THAT trauma anytime soon... what a horror story
wallace
Very selfish.
Paul
Go if you got to go, but don't take anyone with you.
Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne
Could be considered a suicide terrorist.
Abe234
wallaceToday 05:02 pm JST
no freaking way. Sounds like your selfish, lack some empathy and maybe could do with some studying on depression and suicide. Hope is the biggest predictor of suicide, and clearly some couldn’t see any hope and reach the end.
maledae2
Why Japanese choose to die in such a horrible way. In my country, we never have people jump in front of moving train to commit suicide as the all train station are built with barrier doors.
Alan Bogglesworth
maledae2, is your country soviet russia where all station stops keeps you alive?
oyatoi
Hopefully, it won’t trigger a spate of copycats, as happened after the Shin Koiwa incident below.
It began on July 12, 2011, when a woman jumped into a Narita Express train passing through Shinkoiwa Station, was knocked off the train, and hit a store on the platform, injuring four passengers who were caught in the accident. Reports of this accident triggered five other apparent suicide attempts the following July 13, July 25, August 25, and September 18
kurisupisu
So why hasn’t JR installed barriers in Nada station as they have in Rokko Michi and Sannomiya, two very adjacent stations?
Nada is a very busy station that is close to the Hanshin line and there are many residential blocks around the area-the station is not a loss maker by any means so why hasn’t JR West installed barriers?
Rakuraku
I agree. To be able to chose such an horrible way to die proves than the only thing a person with deep clinical depression is able to think is to stop the pain as soon as possible and whichever the way.
There is not more rational behavior.
Having said that, the trauma suffered by the persons hurt on the platform will always haunt them.
It is such a pitty that the guy could not ask for help (I guess he did not or did not receive an adequate one). I guess in such a case he should have been hospitalized as he was a danger both for himself and others.
finally rich
That's what I've been thinking lately. The only time I had to use trains this year got me stuck for over 20 minutes at the station and ended up grabbing a taxi. You got to be a despicable sociopath to completely ignore others even when you're ending yourself. No thoughts about how many hundreds if not thousands of people will come late home for their families or even worse
wallace
Abe234
wallace
Very selfish
Over the decades, I have worked with many groups of people suffering from a variety of personal problems. Terminating one's life should not involve the injury or death of another. I do accept at times there are people who can be so depressed they are no longer fully in control.
The problem isn't the suicide but the method of it.
In this case, thousands of train travelers were stuck in trains for one hour at peak travel time. Five people suffered an injury and the train driver was traumatized for life.
James
Was it really jumping? They don't have safety rails along this line at all and he could have easily slipped at the wrong moment. Obviously it wasn't a timed jump as most suicides land near or on the tracks if it was a real suicide it likely wouldn't have flung him back into the crowd.
By calling it jumping or suicide JR can claim expenses from the family.
https://japantoday.com/category/national/family-of-91-year-old-dementia-sufferer-struck-by-train-ordered-to-pay-jr-compensation
I am highly suspicious and I think it should be investigated further.
kaimycahl
@maledae My suggestion would be study the people and look at how they live and how much stress they are constantly under from the time they hit elementary school to the work force some people handle stress differently than others. Perhaps your country have barrier doors in place because they to at one time had such incidents or perhaps the knew that those situation could become a problem and they put design measures in place to prevent them from happening, in Japan in this case its acceptable way of life because it continues to happen.
Why Japanese choose to die in such a horrible way. In my country, we never have people jump in front of moving train to commit suicide as the all train station are built with barrier doors.
Abe234
wallaceToday 07:49 pm JST
Abe234
wallace
Very selfish
Over the decades, I have worked with many groups of people suffering from a variety of personal problems. Terminating one's life should not involve the injury or death of another. I do accept at times there are people who can be so depressed they are no longer fully in control.
The problem isn't the suicide but the method of it.
In this case, thousands of train travelers were stuck in trains for one hour at peak travel time. Five people suffered an injury and the train driver was traumatized for life.
well I’m not sure about your experience but it’s clearly different from my experience working in mental health. This person who committed suicide had no intention of harming anyone. Second you’ll also know that if anyone is mentally I’ll their reasoning is impaired and is far from selfish. A rational person would be selfish, but this person was depressed and doesn’t have the cognitive processes that your using right now to judge him. Suicide anywhere outside can cause problems, jumping of bridges causes problems the people picking up the person are traumatized, and that’s a fair point about the train driver. However it doesn’t help when japantoday et al go on publishing this. Because as you know, this spurs copy cat suicides. (BMJ) That’s why in many other countries they DON’T broadcast it or print it. As a point of note maybe they stations could also have the telephone help line posters there for anyone contemplating it. Suicide is never easy and anyone can have those thoughts, but it depends if the person has retained insight wether or not they get help. I also wonder if the person took their shoes off. ?
Abe234
maledae2Today 06:26 pm JST
they do but the press don’t go on about it like japantoday. Because it encourages copy cats. We will be reading another one soon. Watch this page. It’s really not news is it? It’s just about getting clicks, when really we should be asking how can we help people with suicidal ideation. Not how selfish this guy is. They have enough guilt as it is. Let’s face it, nobody knows anything about his circumstances.
Harry_Gatto
A couple of observations: I've lived here for 25 years and have seen most new stations built with barriers and barriers being installed at many existing stations. For some existing stations installing barriers is difficult or impossible due to different train car types, sometimes from different rail companies, sharing the same platforms. The car designs are not alike so the door positions are not the same. This is one possibility.
"Obviously it wasn't a timed jump as most suicides land near or on the tracks." Well yes, obviously they do land near or on the tracks, they would have to be an Olympic class jumper to land on the other side.
".....if it was a real suicide it likely wouldn't have flung him back into the crowd." Errant nonsense. If he had landed on the tracks before the train came along then it probably would have just run over him. However, if he was not completely prone when hit by the train his body would almost certainly have been flung forwards by the impact: many tens of tons of moving train carries a lot of momentum.
If someone is really hell-bent on committing suicide by train but all their local stations have barriers then it is an easy matter to find a place along the track which they can access and jump in front of a moving train. Why people seem to choose a station to commit suicide is beyond me as is the selfishness of their actions (discussed elsewhere in this thread).
The story you have referred to is from 2013, I wonder what the actual outcome was?
Garthgoyle
Jerk. Could have gone somewhere else to end his life without traumatizing and hurting others.
Strangerland
It always makes me shake my head when I read posters who talk about how someone who committed suicide should have thought more rationally, as these people clearly aren't intelligent enough to realize that if these people were thinking rationally, they wouldn't have committed suicide.
Rakuraku
You make these comments as a Genki rational person. Unfortunately clinical depressed persons are not rational anymore or they would never kill themselves in the first place (not a lot of fun I guess).
I sincerely hope that it will never happen to one of your loved ones to be become severely depressed (you may then reconsider what you wrote).
And btw psychopathy and clinical depression are totally different things as you will be able to see if you Google them.
Sorry not intention to be argumentative but I needed to say it.
Good night
ian
Jumping in front of the trains that's not the way to go that's selfish.
Get yourself a machine gun and blow every one away
ian
Always
fango
Agreed, however, it seems clear that people that choose such a way to end their life do so because they have struggled with deep issues of neglect and feeling overlooked. Perhaps the shock and inconvenience their public death will cause is a last-ditch effort to feel "seen" in a society they feel has failed to deliver the love and support they desire.
Suicide by Train is a symptom of a very chronic issue.
James
@Harry_Gatto
Sorry it took me a while to get back to this been busy.
Forward yes but not to the side so he must have hit the edge or side of the train other wise he would have been flung forward as you say.
The outcome was clearly typed in the story I linked..."ordered to pay JR compensation"
Harry_Gatto
Depends on the shape of the front of the train for one thing.
But did they ultimately pay or was it appealed?
JTC
For people who start expressing suicidal thoughts, what "real" support is there within Japan ... and how does it compare to services available in other Countries ?