Woman injured after train departs with her bag strap caught in door

"got her bag stuck in the train doors and was forced to run along the platform for 50 meters as the train began moving forward.... The train eventually stopped but the woman, who had been holding on to the handle of her bag, fell five meters from the platform injuring her head"

She wasn't forced to run along the platform, she chose to do that as she figured she might not recover her precious bag.

Maybe she'll obey the rules and won't try to run into trains as the doors are closing from now on.

Maybe she'll obey the rules and won't try to run into trains as the doors are closing from now on.

I don't know what rules you refer to. Perhaps you mean natural laws of reality and physics?

You are correct that she made a choice, but it seems to me the conductor was also not very careful. The train should not depart with people so close to the door, and obviously she was right up next to it.

And the person who pushed that emergency button should get a reward.

Also, I don't understand how she fell 5 meters from the platform. Did she fall between the train and the platform? Is there enough space?

obviously whoever wrote this made a typo. the distance from the platform to the ground is 5 feet, not meters.

Running to catch the Yamanote? The damn thing comes every three minutes! So, for the sake of three minutes she nearly lost her life? Idiots!

funny car- Those Yamanote trains are 11 cars long and it doesn't state how far from the conductor she was. If she was in the middle of the train, it's probably hard to see 5 cars ahead.

If the conductor cannot see he should not give the driver the all clear to move out. Seeing is his job.

The woman did not fall 3m from the platform. The report said she ran for that distance before she fell. Anyway, she should bear full responsibility for her action as an adult.

There are screens at the end of the platform where the conductor is that show the length of the train. The doors won't close if there is an obstruction wider than 2 cm.

Yeah, my first reaction is to blame the victim in this case. In my experience someone always tries to get on a train that's leaving. I've done it too. If the door slams in your face, and your bag or whatever is stuck inside, that's your fault. If you continue to hold on and run... Well, you're obviously asking for trouble.

Why is everyone blaming the woman for this? Maybe she NEEDED to catch that particular train. Who wants to lose their bag with wallet and other necessary stuff in it? The thing is, the conductor may not have been able to see the 'thin' strap of the bag, but surely he saw the proximity of the woman to the door and should either not have departed, or reopened the doors for her.

For those of you who ride the trains here in Tokyo, I'm sure you have seen those idiots who tend to stick their bags, umbrellas or whatever between the doors as they are closing in an attempt to force the doors back open again. They have no consideration for their own safety as well as that of those around them. I think the passengers already on the train should boo or heckle them or something ... not just sit there and take the scene in stride.

Then there are those who throw their bodies between the closing doors ... some successfully getting the doors to reopen and some who get squashed. I have seen the outer shoulders touch as the doors close on them ... and surely it must hurt. Yet if they do manage to get aboard they walk down the aisle of the train as if nothing had happened ... as if such stuff is routine for them.

As was stated in the above articles: idiots ...

And, by the way, according to TV reproductions of Saturday's incident ... the woman fell on the platform, not off it, after being pulled along for so many meters.

@smith - of course no one wants to lose their bag or be late, but neither thing is more important than LIFE, and that is probably why people are criticizing her poor choice of priorities.

justbcuzisay: I'm not saying the woman wasn't stupid in the mad rush for the train, I'm saying the conductor should not have started the train with someone in such close proximity. I mean, surely if you can't see a thin bag strap you can see the human being attached a few centimeters away.

edojin: "Then there are those who throw their bodies between the closing doors ... some successfully getting the doors to reopen and some who get squashed. I have seen the outer shoulders touch as the doors close on them ... and surely it must hurt. Yet if they do manage to get aboard they walk down the aisle of the train as if nothing had happened ... as if such stuff is routine for them."

Again, no denying the stupidity of the people who do such things, but what does it say about the train operators? JR has a very lengthy history of negligence and accidents due to trains being a few minutes off time, and they punish any conductors who are even a minute off the mark, so what is all this stuff about "respecting life" and what not?

"And, by the way, according to TV reproductions of Saturday's incident ... the woman fell on the platform, not off it, after being pulled along for so many meters."

Further proof that the conductor carries a lot of the fault in this. He couldn't see a woman being dragged? Was he too busy making the mandatory JR finger signals at markers and talking to himself?

Let go of the bag, lady. It's not worth getting injured or possibly dying for. Good job by the commuter who hit the button and the JR staff. Tough thing to catch all that may be going on along a 200 meter platform.

This woman is an IDIOT FOOL!! The bloody Yamanote trains come every 3 minutes!! What kind of an idiot fool (assuming this idiot fool is Japanese) does not understand this?? Smith, you should be very ashamed of yourself coming up with insane comments like MAYBE she really had to get on THIS train??? Wake up earlier!! Get to the station earlier! Do not bother others by being an idiot fool and having trains pull you 5 meters or 5 meters! Plain and simple!

Sorry to hear about her misfortune. On a similar note, I had a similar problem on the ski slopes many years ago. I was wearing one of those ski jackets that have a string around the waist and comes out in both sides so you can adjust it. Well, the string was kind of long already and at the end of both extremes of the string there are two metal retainers. When it was time for me to get off I felt a strong pull and right away I threw myself on the snow and signaled the operator to stop the lift. One of the metal retainers got trapped in the chair. So, I learned my lesson not to let any loose strings exposed.

smithinjapanJan. 12, 2014 - 03:53PM JST Why is everyone blaming the woman for this? Maybe she NEEDED to catch that particular train. Who wants to lose their bag with wallet and other necessary stuff in it?

The train comes every 3 minutes, she could have waited 3 minutes..........3 minutes is less than it takes to perk a 6-cup of espresso.....But she decided to make a run for it.....

Smith, she decided, not you and not me.,.......she......

So it is her own darned fault.......

It's 2213 time to make a 6-cup of Cuban espresso.......MMmmmmmmmmm so good!

JoeBigs: "Smith, she decided, not you and not me.,.......she......"

That she did, and the conductor decided that despite the fact a person was centimeters from the door he would depart, and he decided that, no doubt, because if he did not JR would have him picking weeds outside the stations if he were a mere few seconds off schedule, which he ended up being anyway. All this "the next train would come in three minutes" crap is just proof that they are in too much of a rush to care if people get caught in the doors vs. meeting deadlines.

@Avigator, i really hate those stupid strings on ski jackets too!! As soon as i get I am gonna cut them off of mine! @ JoesBigg, un buchito?? A small cup of super strong Cuban espresso?? Ño!!! That is maybe what that woman should have had that morning and then she would be running faster than that train!! I really doubt the JR Yamanote knowingly pulled away with this nutty woman holding on to her bag! (That was for Smith)