MIE (TR) – A woman in a wheelchair was killed in an apparent suicide in which she deliberately pushed herself off a station platform in Tsu City and into the path of an oncoming train, police said on Saturday.
At around 10 p.m. on Friday, the woman, a 35-year-old resident of the town of Watarai, was struck by an express train of the Kintetsu Railway after plunging off the platform at Hisai Station, reports Sankei Sports (Mar. 35).
Prior to the incident, a station worker offered to assist the woman, who was alone, but she declined and said she had someone accompanying her. She didn’t board two trains that had previously stopped at the station over a 25-minute period.
The worker, who was carrying a portable access ramp for her to use, realized she went onto the tracks after hearing a loud clang.
“I pushed the emergency brake button and such, but it was too late,” said the worker. The station does not have platform screen doors.
Officers from the Tsu-Minami Police Station are investigating the case as suicide after multiple witnesses said they saw the woman intentionally plunge off the platform.
