TOKYO (TR) – An elderly woman using a cane was hit and killed by a train after she fell from a platform at a railway station in Katsushika Ward on Tuesday, police said, reports NHK (Oct. 1).
At around 10:30 a.m., a local Keisei Oshiage Line train hit Kiyoko Akiya, 66, at Tateishi Station after she fell from the platform.
According to the Katsushika Police Station, the driver of the train apparently applied the brakes after a person on the platform pushed an emergency button. But the train hit the woman, a resident of Arakawa Ward, as she tried to stand up.
An examination of security camera footage showed the woman, who is certified as visually impaired, passing through a ticket gate at the station.
Keisei Electric Railway Co., the operator of the train, said that the station does not have a barricade separating the track area from the platform.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the number of stations nationwide in which barricades are installed stands at 783, or only about 8 percent of the total.
