The Yomiuri ShimbunA visually impaired man died after he fell onto the tracks and was run over by a train at a subway station in Tokyo. It was a heartrending accident. Steps should be taken to prevent a recurrence.
The accident happened at Aoyama-Itchome Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line. The station’s platform is barely three meters wide and has many large round pillars. The man, who was walking with a guide dog, is said to have lost his footing as he approached the edge of the platform just before a pillar.
People with guide dogs commonly have the dog walk between themselves and the tracks, but the dog was on the man’s other side when the accident happened. Although the station staff recognized the danger and told the man via the public-address system to step back from the edge of the platform, the accident could not be prevented.
Each year, visually impaired people are involved in more than 70 falls from station platforms. According to one survey, nearly 40 percent of visually impaired people have experienced such a fall. All railway operators must acknowledge that they cannot afford to wait any longer to take measures to prevent these accidents.
Platform screen doors installed along platform edges are the most effective tools to prevent people from falling onto the tracks. However, such doors have not been installed at the site of the accident.
Since five years ago, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry has called on railway operators to give priority to installing platform screen doors at stations used by over 100,000 passengers a day. However, installation of these doors has been completed at only 30 percent of the 251 stations nationwide that fit in this category.
Install more screen doors
Railway operators cite the expensive cost as the main reason for the delay in installing these doors. Installing them at all 29 stations on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo, a project East Japan Railway Co. is currently undertaking, is said to cost ¥55 billion. It is a fact that this is not an easily affordable amount.
There also are structural issues that vary among platforms, such as their width and strength. It has been pointed out that there are stations at which several operators link their services on the same set of tracks, but the location of doors on their trains is not the same.
On the other hand, various ways have been devised to get around such problems. Typical platform screen doors slide open and close, but some stations have introduced barriers equipped with a movable bar or rope to block passengers. This has the merit of slashing costs and weight. Platform screen doors whose position can be adjusted to match various trains are also being developed.
In April, at a different Tokyo Metro station, an accident occurred in which a train started moving while a baby stroller was wedged in its doors. It is highly possible this also could have been prevented if platform screen doors had been in place.
The public and private sectors should think even harder and speed up installation of such barriers.
The support of the station staff becomes all the more important at stations where, for one reason or another, installing platform screen doors is extremely difficult. Tokyo Metro has instructed all of its stations to have their staff actively advise people with disabilities.
Other passengers should also pay attention and urge a nearby visually impaired person to be careful if necessary. Also, using a smartphone while walking is dangerous. People doing so could collide with a visually impaired person and cause an unexpected accident. We should all strictly refrain from doing this.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 19, 2016)Speech
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