At Crossing in Yokohama
People and cars were stopped at a railroad crossing in Yokohama City, Japan, as a train was approaching.
In a car a father at 60s and his daughter at 40 were sitting. Then she suddenly noticed that an old man was in the track. He was lying on the ballast with his head put on one rail. The woman sitting on the passenger seat in the car her father drove opened the door quickly shouting, "The train will run over the man!" Then she dashed into the crossing. But her father yelled, "Too late! Stop it!" And somebody pushed an emergency button installed on a fixed frame supporting a crossing bar so as to stop the incoming train.
The driver of the train spotted a human being before he found an emergency signal on the console. He applied braking. But it was too late. The train hit both the woman and the old man trying to get out of the crossing.
The 73-year old man was only injured at the clavicle but the brave 40-year old woman, Ms. Murata, died while her father was watching.
This is one of big news stories in Japan this morning.
For your information, Japan records more than 300 accidents in railroad crossings per year. And the yearly number of the dead due to crossing accidents is more than 110.
And compared with other cities, Tokyo has very many crossings. For example, as of 2010, the Tokyo metropolitan area has 668 railroad crossings while New York has 109 crossings, Paris has 17 and London only 12.
Crossings in Tokyo Metropolitan Area and Paris (X = crossing; the zones surrounded by blue lines are target areas for comparison.) (Tokyo on the right hand side and Paris on the left)
