Mentally disabled man dies after being left in car in hot weather

HTF could you not see an adult sitting in a vehicle? Their gross negligence resulted in his death. "I apologize to him and to his family from the bottom of my heart." Well that makes it all better now don't it. Close that place down and prosecute to the fullest.

Wow. They literally treated him worse than a dog.

While some facilities have good workers, many are staffed by people who are only there because it pays slightly more than working at a convenience store. It is very demanding work, so many of those who are there for the money burn out quickly. They see the clients as a nuisance mostly. It's a bad situation. The facilities badly need staff, but don't have the money to attract the best. So they accept the worst.

Kenji Otsuka, caretaker of the welfare facility, told reporters, "I apologize to him and to his family from the bottom of my heart."

Oh, well that makes it all okay then, doesn't it Kenji?!

As there were obviously several workers removing patients from the van, and the fact that clearly nobody bothered to check inside the vehicle before leaving it, which let's fact it, should be standard practice, this is a clear cut case of ignorance and stupidity at its finest hour!

The temperature inside that vehicle would have been excruciatingly hot compared to the outside temperature.

R.I.P. fella. Let's hope justice is served.

*The line "Oh, well that makes it all okay then, doesn't it Kenji?!" is not part of the quote.

@Bernie - have you tried using any of the JT comment functions? Always successfully? Well, good for you. The quote function is awkward, and often includes the poster's own comment in the quote.

This is appalling news, horrifying. How the poor young man must have suffered. Undoubtedly brought up to sit quietly and be patient and not make trouble, he must've sat there patiently. The staff couldn't even be bothered to count them.

Folks, this isn't quite the same as people leaving their kids in the car to play pachinko, its clearly a tragedy........one easily preventable BUT accidents do happen......everyday out there

RIP & hope this type of thing doesn't happen again

This is a tragedy easily avoided by common sense, but if the man was lying on the last seat in the van whoever looked to see if everyone was out wouldn't see him. However, a simple walk around the van and he'd be found.

Also, in a small van the caretakers probably didn't think it was necessary to count the patients going in and coming out. But should have, if they weren't going to remember who they were transporting.

They have 1 job. That's it. 1 job. Look after the people in their care.

No excuse.

Wow. They literally treated him worse than a dog.

No, they treated him exactly like how many dogs here are treated.

Why does this facility not have a procedure to ensure that patients are back from wherever they went? This is neglect. I hope the family sues for the pain and suffering their poor child felt in his last few hours alive.

A mentally disabled man died Thursday apparently due to heatstroke or heat exhaustion after being left in a service vehicle at a welfare facility in eastern Japan for about six hours in hot weather, police said.

Chances were high that the 19-year-old man was not able to open the car door with his own hand because of his mental handicap. He may have struggled in the torturous heat. Very sad. Hope the tragedy this time teaches welfare facility staff a good lesson for future work. RIP.

@Bernie O'Mahony - my apologies, I misunderstood. You were correcting yourself, not another poster. I am humble/d.

Isn't is common sense and practice for the last person closing the door to check that no one or nothing is left inside? The inability of the staff to do something so simple seems to imply that they just quickly want to get the job done.

Welfare facility staff likely forgot to help the 19-year-old man out of the van when assisting four other facility users in leaving the vehicle around 9 a.m. Thursday in Ageo, Saitama Prefecture, the police said.

Is the facility understaffed? Were the workers given more tasks? Have cuts been made?

Tragedy. Both for the kid, his family and the staff.

So, they left him in the car at 9am and found him at 3:30pm, but nobody noticed he was missing? How many handicapped people are enrolled at this facility? How many staff do they have per person in their care? There is a handicapped care facility near my house and I have spoken to parents of those who attend the facility. Many of them travel from 10-30 kilometers away to bring their handicapped kids to the facility because there aren't any facilities in their local area. Japan has some of the best health care in the world, unless you are mentally or physically handicapped or in need of psychiatric care. Japan fails miserably in these areas of health care. A sad and unnecessary end to a young person's life.

Unbelievable, how diffcult must it be to count to 5.

People how 'work' as helpers but not for the disabled only for themselves (just to have a job, eventually easy work because not doing it serious) should be kicked out of these facilities.

The problem is, that often complaints from the disabled are not heard or ignored, even after one put more pressure on them.

Once I hear from somebody, that while on a trip, a helper forced a disabled person to sit next to a heavy disabled person in the airplane, so the helper had not to care about the heavy disabled person. Later on the same situation in the hotel, the helper went out to enjoy nightlife instead of caring for the disabled persons.

Maybe there is need of more control, so disabled people will be treated more nicely.

The heat just puts me to sleep. Likely he did too, and died in it. There's no report of him hurt due to struggling.

Yes to the individual above who compares it to how idiots treat dogs in cars too.

They have 1 job. That's it. 1 job. Look after the people in their care.

They have one job for each person in their care. We don't know from the article what actually happened, but it's not hard to imagine that one of the other people helped from the van required some extra attention.

the facility noticed the absence of the man shortly before the facility was closed at 4 p.m.

I see two monumental mistakes here. I really believe even leaving someone in a hot car is simply a tragic mistake. This is likely only 1 person's mistake, as the others were probably onto other tasks like getting people inside. But it baffles me that no one noticed his absence until almost closing time. Very sad story.

For me ... Apologized not accepted it's their job !!! Jesus is that how simple I apologized from the bottom of my heart ???. Police should investigate this, maybe intentional !?