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Woman dies after being hit by train in Kanagawa

12 Comments

A woman in her 20s died after being hit by a train in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, police said Sunday.

According to police, the incident occurred at around 6 p.m. Saturday on the JR Sagami Line. TBS reported that a passerby called 110 and said that a woman had been struck by a train.

Police found the woman's body lying about 10 meters from the tracks. She was confirmed dead at the scene. No one on the train was injured.

The train driver told police he saw the woman standing on the tracks and applied the emergency brake but couldn't stop in time. Police said the woman was seen climbing under the crossing gate and that she likely committed suicide.

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12 Comments
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This is REALLY messed up. I had an apartment at the base of the hill that leads to the station, two years ago. A 13! year old girl did the SAME thing when I lived there! The ambulance kept driving up and down the hill, wondering if he was going to the right train line ( there are TWO in that area ). So sad...I couldn't sleep for days.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

@WA4TKG

Many years ago now a girl that I taught who was in the 9th grade did the same thing. Like you, the experience haunted me, and still does to this day. Because I was full-time faculty at the time I helped at the funeral. Many hundreds of her classmates came to pay their respects. I cried like a baby — and I have cried only a handful of times during adulthood.

The thing is, it wasn't reported by the media, and the student body and part-time teachers were told is was an 'accident.' I felt obligated to stick with the story. I think to save face for the family the incident was officially recorded as an accident.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

No place for the weak in Japan. I am tough but try to change the old minset that different and considered weak people have little or no value. Read story "the lion and the rat" from Jean De la Fontaine (more than 300 year old story).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The sad part is that committing suicide by train collision is a HUGE problem in Japan. This is especially true on the JR East Chuo Main Line between Shinjuku and Kanda Stations in the very center of Tokyo--drivers of the Chuo-Sobu and Chuo Rapid trains on this part of the Chuo Main Line report a LOT of collisions with people on a per year basis. :-(

3 ( +3 / -0 )

May she rest in peace.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Sensato: I think to save face for the family the incident was officially recorded as an accident.

Or to avoid clusters.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

We all experience that voice in that head that wants us dead, some notice it more than others, and some can't get rid of it. She needed help.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

What a sad waste of life. Also spare a thought for the poor driver who saw it all unfold and the passengers, some of whom saw the results.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

spare a thought for the poor driver who saw it all unfold

I always feel bad for the drivers in these cases. I don't generally consider suicide to be selfish, as each person should have the right to choose whether or not they want to live, but I do consider suicide by train to be particularly selfish, as it puts that burden on the driver, and on all the passengers who are not only delayed, but delayed with the heavy feeling of knowing that it is because someone died.

If you're going to kill yourself, do it somewhere private.

0 ( +3 / -4 )

I think it’s safe to say people who choose to commit suicide are mentally at rock bottom and not capable of rational thought – consideration for people who may witness their final moments being pretty low on their list of priorities.

It’s just incredibly tragic all round.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I was told the family has to pay for cleanup in these cases, is that true? What about the poor fellows who have to do it? I witnessed part of the "recovery" after a guy fell off the platform. Up went the blue tarps, but there was no hiding the stretcher as it was carried up the stairs.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Why?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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