Four railway workers die after being struck by limited-express train in Tochigi
The men, in their 50s and 60s, had been performing weeding on railroad tracks.
Four railway workers perished on Thursday after being struck by a limited-express train at a Tobu Nikko Line station in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture. The Spacia X2 train, bound for Tobu Asakusa Station in Tokyo, collided with the workers who were weeding on railroad tracks at Shin-Kanuma Station. The victims, all in their 50s to 60s, were identified as Kazuyoshi Ishikawa, 67, Toshihiko Watanabe, 65, Shigenobu Oke, 53, and Kazunari Sato, 54.
Tobu Railway issued a sincere apology to the families of the deceased and pledged to implement stricter safety measures to prevent similar accidents in the future. The railway company stated that a lookout employee was stationed 80 meters away to warn of approaching trains and signal the train driver using a flag upon worker evacuation.
However, a lookout stationed 300 meters away failed to communicate with other lookouts. The train driver sounded the horn after observing a lookout's signal. None of the 50 passengers on board sustained injuries. The Japan Transport Safety Board dispatched three investigators to the scene, and train services were briefly halted between Shin-Tochigi and Shimo-Imaichi stations, affecting approximately 2,600 passengers.
Written by urgent.news from Japan Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
