Four Railway Workers Killed by Express Train in Japan
Four workers died after being hit by an express train at a station north of Tokyo. Six colleagues and all passengers were safe.
Four people were killed on Thursday when an express train struck them while they were performing weed-control work on the tracks at a station north of Tokyo, according to local police and the railway operator.
The incident took place at Shin-Kanuma Station on the Tobu Nikko Line. The train involved was a Tokyo-bound Spacia express. The victims — three workers and a supervisor — were taken to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
Six other members of the work crew, including two workers, three people assigned to lookout duty, and another supervisor, were unharmed. The group had been spraying herbicide on the tracks. All roughly 50 passengers on the train also escaped injury.
Tobu Railway officials said it was not yet clear why the workers remained on the track as the train approached, or what the lookouts were doing at the time. Lookouts are normally expected to alert workers to an oncoming train by waving a flag, blowing a whistle, or using a microphone. The company said it is cooperating fully with the investigation.
Takao Suzuki, head of Tobu's railway business division, issued an apology, saying the company takes the accident seriously and will work to ensure such an event never happens again.
Fatal accidents on Japanese railways are rare, as the system is widely regarded as safe and punctual. Train services on the affected line were halted for several hours before resuming later in the day.