Station Worker Thinks Woman On Track Is Bag, Train Departs
by Beth on Tuesday, June 11, 2013
by Beth on Tuesday, June 11, 2013
From Jiji.com:
Tokyo Metro: Woman Falls Onto Tracks And Is Mistaken For Bag, Station Worker Signals Train To Leave Without Checking, Woman Takes Shelter Under Track, Escapes Safely
On June 10, Tokyo Metro announced that on the evening of June 9 a woman who looked to be in her 20s fell onto the tracks at the Hibiya Line Roppongi Station, however the male station worker (20) overseeing the platform assumed that a bag had fallen, and allowed the train to depart without checking the tracks. The woman escaped to the space beneath the platform, and was unharmed.
According to Tokyo Metro, at around 9:25pm on June 9, when the woman had tried to get on the train she fell into the 25cm gap between the train and the platform edge. A woman accompanying her shouted “[she's] fallen” in a loud voice, but without checking the station worker assumed that a bag had fallen onto the track. He explained to this woman that he would “pick it up afterwards” and indicated to the train to depart.
After the train had departed, the station worker brought a grabber and asked the woman “Where did it fall?”, when the woman replied “It was a person who fell”. The station worker had joined Tokyo Metro in April, and had been posted at Roppongi station for around one and a half months. Tokyo Metro statement: We offer our deepest apologies. We will thoroughly instruct the station worker involved.
