TOCHIGI (TR) – Four maintenance workers were struck and killed by a limited express Tobu Railway train while clearing weeds on the tracks at a station on Thursday morning, police and railway officials said, reports Jiji Press (Aug. 20).
The fatal incident occurred at around 10:45 a.m. at Shin-Kanuma Station on the Tobu Nikko Line in Kanuma City. The six-car Spacia X No. 2 train, traveling from Tobu Nikko to Asakusa, plowed into the men as they were spraying herbicide near the tracks underneath the station platform.
Tochigi Prefectural Police identified the victims as Kazuyoshi Ishikawa, 67, and Toshihiko Watanabe, 65, both from Utsunomiya City, along with Nikko City residents Shigenobu Omo, 53, and Kazuya Sato, 54.
The four men were employees of a subcontracting company and part of a 10-person crew. The tragedy appears to have stemmed from a catastrophic breakdown in safety protocols.
According to Tobu Railway, a lookout stationed about 80 meters away was responsible for warning the workers of oncoming trains and signaling the driver with a flag once the workers had evacuated the tracks. The train’s driver reportedly told investigators, “I saw the lookout’s signal and sounded the horn.”
However, another lookout scheduled to be stationed 300 meters ahead of the station to relay approaching train warnings was allegedly unable to communicate with the primary lookout. Tobu Railway stated they are currently “confirming the details” of this lapse in communication.
In a press conference held in Tokyo later that afternoon, Takao Suzuki, head of railway operations for Tobu Railway, bowed deeply in apology.
“We offer our deepest and most sincere apologies to the bereaved families,” Suzuki said, vowing to thoroughly implement measures to ensure such a severe accident never happens again.
None of the approximately 50 passengers on board the train were injured.
The Japan Transport Safety Board has dispatched three railway accident investigators to the scene to probe the circumstances leading up to the deaths.
The incident temporarily halted services between Shin-Tochigi and Shimo-Imaichi stations, affecting roughly 2,600 passengers.
