Train-Truck Collision in Japan’s Hokkaido Leaves 51 Injured

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Sapporo, March 1 Kyodo – (EDS: UPDATING NUMBER OF INJURED PEOPLE, ADDING OTHER DETAILS) A one-car local train collided with a trailer truck Thursday morning on a crossing in Bihoro, Hokkaido, leaving 51 people injured and leading to the arrest of the truck driver for alleged negligence resulting in injuries, local police said.

Hideyuki Kanayama, 45, the driver of the truck, which was carrying logs, was quoted by police as saying, “I slammed on the brakes after realizing the crossing gate was closed, but couldn’t stop.”

The train also used its emergency brake but apparently too late. The train driver, Eiichi Goda, 29, told the railway operator that he applied the emergency brake after he noticed the truck but that it did not stop the train in time. The train was running at 60 kilometres per hour before the accident, Goda was quoted as saying.

The collision occurred at a railroad crossing between Bihoro and Hiushinai on Hokkaido Railway Co.’s Sekihoku Line at around 8:20 a.m., the company said. There are no curves on the track in the area and there was an unobstructed view from the train to the road, it said.

The Hokkaido police said 50 of the train’s 70 passengers were injured, as well as the driver of the train. The driver and two others suffered heavy but not critical injuries, the police said.

In Tokyo, the Aircraft & Railway Accident Investigation Commission under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport dispatched two inspectors to the accident site, ministry officials said.

Some of the train passengers were students on their way to a graduation ceremony at Kitamihakuyo and Kitamihokuto high schools in the nearby city of Kitami.

A resident living near the accident site said he heard a loud crash and saw ambulances taking bleeding people.

“The train is normally empty with only two or three passengers. I can’t believe that such a lot of people got injured,” the 75-year- old resident said.

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