A woman in her 50s walking along the tracks was hit and killed by a train on Tuesday in Saitama City. The impact hurled the woman’s body up onto the platform where she slammed into a teenage girl who suffered a sprained ankle.
According to police and station staff, the incident occurred at around 4:10 p.m. at Yono Station in Urawa Ward, Sankei Shimbun reported. The local 10-car train on the Keihin-Tohoku Line, which was bound for Isogo Station, hit the woman who was seen on the railway tracks just prior to the train's arrival.
Police said the woman, whose name hasn’t been released, lived in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Police said the train driver told them he saw the woman and applied the emergency brake but couldn’t stop in time.
The Omiya branch office of the East Japan Railway Co (JR East) said that 18 trains along the Keihin-Tohoku Line were temporarily suspended in some sections, affecting 19,000 passengers.
© Japan Today
13 Comments
Login to comment
NOMINATION
Terrible! Not only the physical pain but imagine what this will to the girl mentally and any other witness.
Gaijinjland
Sounds like a possible suicide or it could have been accidental. Not enough details. But yeah this will psychology traumatize this girl for years to come.
ulysses
Feel sorry for both, but the girl will have to live through the trauma.
Hope she gets counseling.
Meiyouwenti
She’s a young girl. She’ll get over it in time .
William77
I hope the girl will recover fisically and mentally soon.
This is something that too often happened in strict an less forgiving J-society.
It is time to relax things and give more importance to mental health as well.
afewtoomany
The driver day the lady then hit the brakes.
In this day and age, I would have thought that sensors at a station would detect someone on the tracks and engage the brakes of all approaching trains.
Asiaman7
Hmm ... I’ve never known anyone to sprain their ankle that way.
Strangerland
Then back in the real world, she may not. This kind of thing can mess someone up for life. I knew an Aussie once who saw someone commit suicide by train; he turned into a junky for many years afterward, and even though he was sober when I met him, it had clearly affected his entire life.
Zaphod
I don´t get it. Suicide, or stupidity? You don´t just "walk along tracks"
ReynardFox
@Gaijinland
The wording in English is a bit ambiguous. ‘Walking along the tracks’ makes it seem like like an accident than intentionally throwing herself in front of the train. But again, I could be wrong.
@Sven Asai
They are taken to the hospital for a number of reasons, the two biggest being the need for an official pronouncement of death and an autopsy. They have a lot of questions they have to answer. Was she drunk? Was she on drugs? Was she OFF drugs she should have been taking? Was the train the only thing that caused injury or were there injuries she sustained previously that might have contributed? If it was a suicide, could there possibly be indications of abuse, both self-abuse or abuse caused by another? So on and so on.
I think it’s a bit telling, though, that you see fit to compare a dead woman to meat you get at the supermarket. Class act.
TheReds
Just last week I got onto the platform and as I was listening to music I did not realize what was happening. I saw the train staff in front of me looking at the halted train 10 meters away from my back but he did not stop me. As I past him suddenly I saw something in between the track. I quickly turned away and realized a "human accident" just happened. I could not take a second look. I know what I saw. I was furious why the staff did not stop anyone from getting close. About 10 people were still on the platform and I have no idea what they wanted to do. Some were crying. I went downstairs and I was shaken. I went out and sat down near the station and I couldn't hold my tears. I sat for over 1 hour as I watched all the fire engines and police cars pouring in. No ambulance, just a gray van. It took me that long to get myself together. Finally, they came out with the body but they did not block the view with plastic sheets. The just pushed the body out on the stretcher all wrapped up in a bag. You could see it was a person. Some moms with kids were there as it is a busy station. I heard some mom saying to the kid not to watch. It took me a few days to finally get over it. But I really wish the staff and some of the procedures could have been better. Oh, and why they won't build barriers and doors on the platform? Is JR poor or what? Almost every week someone die along Chuo line alone.
Back to this news, seeing it happened with your own eyes and followed by being hit with a dead body? I cannot imagine that. I really pray that she will not suffer any post traumatic stress disorder. I hope she's strong and will be fine. Until now I still have not taken the train from my station yet. I still feel bad.
Strangerland
TheReds - that must have been horrible. I hope you are well, that cannot sit well with your psyche.
I hope you're a young girl, as according to a poster here you'd get over it. (Sarcasm)