6-yr-old girl critical after hanging herself on overhead ladder in park

Thursday 18th September, 09:52 AM JST

AICHI —

A 6-year-old girl accidentally hanged herself Wednesday afternoon after the strap on her school safety helmet got caught in the bars of an overhead ladder at a playground in a park in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture. Ai Sugimoto was taken to hospital but remains in a critical condition, police said Thursday.

According to police, the girl got into difficulty as she was climbing the bars with her friends at 4:30 p.m. When her helmet strap got caught on the bars, she fell below and started to choke. Her friends ran to a neighbor for help.

Police said Sugimoto and other children are supposed to wear their safety helmets when they ride bikes. She was wearing the helmet because she came to the park by bicycle. The overhead ladder is about 1.5 meters tall, while Sugimoto is 1.2. meters tall.

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Latest 15 of 37 Total Comments Show All

northlondon at 12:49 PM JST - 18th September

Senjin, I know exactly what effect the headline used has on a readership. When you first caught a glimpse of this headline what were your initial thoughts ? There is no mention of the word 'accidentally' in the headline and that is all they needed. I have worked in journalism myself, therefore I know what gutter journalism looks like. It's a disgrace and they should be respecting the family of this 6 year old girl. If it's 'snappy' titles you want try The Sun newspaper.
fatloser at 12:55 PM JST - 18th September

I keep thinking that when a "kid" gets hurt an an ancient playground that these cities were supposed to have replaced all old dangerous stuff with new and safe stuff. BUT here I am,suprised again. City government will say they don't have enough money for it.
dammit at 01:21 PM JST - 18th September

New and safe stuff, fatloser? How do you think a new overhead ladder would have made such an accident less likely?

And I agree 100% with northlondon that JT is always publishing deliberately inflammatory articles and headlines, precisely for the purpose of getting of us foreigners worked up. I try to ignore it, but I suppose they want to be like the former MDN English pages.

As for the poor kid, I hope she lives, and I also hope she isn't disabled for life by her accident. If only one of her friends had stood beneath her and supported her weight.
PASHA_51 at 01:38 PM JST - 18th September

Let us hope she recovers soon. Insha Allah
fatloser at 02:12 PM JST - 18th September

Damm it Dammit, why don't you think. Use your BRAIN. Safe stuff doesn't have edges for things to catch on. Did you catch that??????????????
dammit at 04:45 PM JST - 18th September

Where does it say that the bars had edges that have been phased out of the newer versions? They look as though they just have peeling paint to me, and the article - which is all I have to judge by but may be way off the mark - states that the straps got

caught on the bars

Says naught there about strange and unusual edges, but maybe the new version of "overhead ladders" don't have rungs, in fact perhaps they don't exist? Then you'd be right in saying that the newer ones would be safer, because if they didn't have any play equipment there'd have been nothing for the poor kid's strap to get caught on.
borscht at 04:47 PM JST - 18th September

For those without kids, do you know why an adult is at the park supervising his or her kids? So they can tell the doctor what happened. Accidents happen in split seconds. A child can be walking, trip, and cut their front teeth out. In this case, an adult could've run over and pulled the child free and she wouldn't be in critical condition, hopefully. But hovering over your child until she's 40 years old is no way to raise children.

And, Maff, Japanese kids are more mature than western kids? Maybe the kids but definitely not the teenagers.

Hope Ai gets well soon with no after effects but it doesn't look good.
Nippon5 at 05:24 PM JST - 18th September

In Japan, kids are generally allowed out to play with friends as soon as they enter primary school. It's great, because the kids get to play with their peers every single day, not like the poor kids in the West whose parents are so busy that the kids are lucky if they get one supervised "play date" with one carefully chosen peer once a month. The kids also develop independence, making them a lot more mature than Western kids, who often have to wait until they're in their teens before they're let out of their parents' sight because of all this crazy paranoia about child molesters.

Sure, tragedies will sometimes happen, but we can't protect our children from everything forever.

Yep my 12 year old goes to the park and plays with all the kids from his class until the 5 oclock bell, of course all they do is DS or PSP so they really dont need to go to the park for that.. My 6 year old no way is he running around here without a parent or his older brother watching him, sorry but at 6 they dont have the greatest decision making process yet. As far as more mature, why would a child from a society that never grows up be more mature then any other kid??? I would think that most 6 year old children are just that 6 year old children...

I really hope this poor child makes it through and hope it doesnt happen again to a child that age.
dammit at 05:52 PM JST - 18th September

Borscht is right, when I was little I fell off the top of a slide, maybe about 9 or 10 feet above the ground, landing on my head on hard tarmac. My mum was standing right by the slide, but there was nothing she could do to prevent it.

I still remember thinking she was overreacting as I got up an climbed that ladder again.
serindipity at 10:24 PM JST - 18th September

Would this latest headline make you think twice about letting your kids play in a park unsupervised?

"6-year-old boy found strangled in Fukuoka park"

And, his mother was there!!!
franz75 at 11:34 PM JST - 18th September

very sad event, but it is by this kind of accidents that security may improve.

We will see in future some helmets with straps that breaks if there is too much traction on it.
NYC_Samurai at 11:47 PM JST - 18th September

When I was 6, I bid farewell to my mom at 9:00 in the morning and didn't return until 5:00 for dinner.
Is there anyone here who really thinks they can let their child do that today, anywhere in the world?
The times have changed, albeit a 6 year olds thought process is probably not that different. Todays parents must find a balance between over-protection and neglect. A very difficult task indeed.

Hope this youngster recovers without any complications.
ninjitsu182 at 01:01 PM JST - 19th September

I consider it to be ironic in a certain sense, the helmet that was supposed to protect the child ends up almost killing her. I wouldn't blame the parents or anyone, accidents happpen. Luckily she survived.
cwhite at 11:40 PM JST - 20th September

it's not that hard to imagine, helmet was slightly bigger than the gap and she was left dangling. Hardly something to blame people about, just a typical accident like slamming the door on your hand.
almxx at 02:54 PM JST - 21st September

I'm sorry to hear about this, but it's a perfect example of "no accidents".Everything happens in just the way the conditions that exist determine that IT MUST HAPPEN. Take ANY EVENT and go backwards mini-step,by mini-step,and you will see it is true. Everything that happens on earth is a PLANNED EVENT. IT just wasn't planned by any human being.Remember "CAUSE AND EFFECT"? An "accident" would be an effect without a CAUSE. Every event follows the laws that dictate that event. We are living totally "programmed" lives. Just not programmed by us. I sincerely hope we're living out perfect justice.