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4-yr-old girl falls to death from 6th-floor hotel window

54 Comments

A 4-year-old girl fell to her death after she bounced off a bed and went through the window of the 6th-floor hotel room in which she and her parents were staying in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, on Monday night, police said Tuesday.

According to police, the girl was jumping on the two beds in the room at the Floral Inn Himeji at about 6:40 p.m. Monday when she bounced off one of the beds and fell through the open window. She fell approximately 10 meters and landed on a concrete ledge on the third floor.

The bed was placed about 40 cm from the open window. At the time of the incident, the girl's parents were in the room and called 119 as soon as she fell out the window. The family, from Kagawa Prefecture, had been in town for four days to see a boxing tournament.

© News reports

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54 Comments
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Freak accident. My sympathies.... Horseplay can be deadly...

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Wow, just wow.

RIP. So Sad.

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Her parents were in the room watching her jump on the bed with the window open! What's wrong with this picture?

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@Takuma: indeed. Yet still what are the odds to get in a freak accident like that.

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To me this whole thing could have been averted had the parents been doing their job as parents. First jumping on furniture is just wrong. Jumping on someone else's furniture is never right so what the hell were the parents doing? They don't put trampolines next to glass or open 6th floor windows in gymnasiums so why would the parents not see this as a disaster waiting to happen? I hope everyone learns from this stupid waste of life.

Oh, and noticed that I never bothered to mention the fact that there could have been someone trying to sleep in the room adjacent to the jumping girl's room or the fact the little girl could have snapped someone's neck on the ground during her fall... Funny how Japanese are always suppose to be pretending that they are thinking about those around them and their feeling and then we hear about a stupid thing like this that makes you wonder.

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Yet another "kid goes out the window/off the balcony because the parents weren't paying attention" story.

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Geeze I guess you never jumped on beds as a kid. It's just a tragic FREAK accident.

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............freak accident

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accidents do happen, although kids shouldn't be jumping on beds. Unfortunate.

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Possibly, just possibly, jumping on a bed next to an open window on the 6th floor of a hotel is a bad idea. Just, possibly! People say, hindsight is 20/20. Sad day for the parents, but this is something that should not have happened. I won't call it an accident. I would call it an error in judgement resulting in a child's death, of which I see too many, especially in Japan. As OsakaDaz said, "Japan is the land that common sense forgot."

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let your kid jump on the bed and things like this happen. I was jumping on the bed when I was a kid and went threw the window. 100 stitches later we all learned a lesson. Glass and legs don't go together. Sorry parents this is your responsibility. (Wonder why this hotel allowed you to open the windows. Most hotels I'v stayed have either locked them completely or restricted the width you could open them.) I guess they expect parents to put a stop to kids jumping around on the beds etc. in their rooms.

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that sucks. Weird most of the hotels ive been in the windows only open a crack or not at all (I thought it was to prevent suicides but this too) Makes me think of Eric Claptons son.

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One of those preventable freak accidents. I also thought immediately of Eric Clapton's son, who died when a cleaner left the window open. My heart goes out to the parents. What a terrible thing to have happen during a family vacation.

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Funny how Japanese are always suppose to be pretending that they are thinking about those around them and their feeling and then we hear about a stupid thing like this that makes you wonder.

Let's not be jumping to conclusions here (no pun intended). Perhaps the parents were telling the kid to stop jumping on the bed, tried to grap the kid, and the kid went through the window. It was an accident. Do you want Japanese parents to keep a leash on their kids? As if kids in other countries don't encounter such tragedies.

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I think both the parents and kid needed a good smack in the head. Too late now. Maybe they will sue the hotel for allowing the window to be opened.

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Too many armchair parent quarterbacks here with 20/20 hindsight. Kids at times will jump on beds even when you tell them not to, even for a little bit. Remember the kid was still just 4 years old and most likely quite mischivous.

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Basic parenting instinct would tell a normal parent that bouncing near an open window is not a good idea.

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@gaijinfo: From what I read, the window had a blocking device which did exactly what you state, that is allowing the window to be opened only a few inches......but the parents disengaged it.

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Surprised the parents wanted to open the window that far. The weather has been very warm the last few days so perhaps that was the reason. Perhaps the air conditioning wasnt working effectively. Very sad.

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I feel very sorry and sad to hear about accidents involving children. My heart goes out to the parents for the loss of their daughter.

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Nightmare scenario! My heart goes out to the parents, how awful! Kids love to jump on beds (five little monkeys). Unfortunate. to say the very least, rest in peace little one. Windows need to be resticted when little ones are around, opening them in a hotel should not be an option! As a father of a three year old I am very aware of this potential problem and have taken major precautions in our home. Hotels that have families with young families staying should be at least as aware as I am! Not in anyway wishing to critisizse mom and dad but an open window near a bed to me spells DANGER!!

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This doesn't seem like such a "freak accident" to me. It seems like an obvious hazard, however unlikely it may occur. Sympathies to the parents nonetheless.

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bicultural - I agree. It's obvious that the majority of people here don't have kids or can't remember what it was like to be a kid. Try stopping a child from jumping on the bed and it lasts only as long as you're actually holding on to them. Turn your back for a second or even just let go and they'll be at it again in seconds, particularly if they've been cooped up in a car all day travelling.

As for those critics who say the window shouldn't have been open it probably wouldn't have made much difference if it was. 12 or 15 kgs of ballistic child would smash through most glass without difficulty.

My condolences to the parents, this was a tragic accident, and it's easy for some to criticise with 20/20 hindsight, but if you're reading this then please don't blame yourselves. Recovering from this tragedy will be hard enough without constant, "could have... should have... would have...".

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Well, folks, I have kids and when they were young I never left them unattended in a car even for a few minutes; always made sure (to this day) that they wear seatbelts in the car; and made sure that I did everything I could to prevent accidents - i.e. was diligent about looking for potential trouble.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize the potential for disaster when a child is jumping on a bed that is less than a meter away from an open window. In my time here in Japan it's become apparent to me that many Japanese parents just let their kids do what they want to do without disciplining them or ensuring their safety. just look at how many kids under 5 are walking around cars while their parents drive.

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Frungy, your post puts me in mind of something that happened to me a couple of days ago. I attended a small family gathering, consisting of 13 adults and one small child (probably a common ratio in modern-day Japan). While we grown-ups were sitting and chatting, the little boy somehow made his way into the yard and was in the process of climbing over the fence and on to a busy road, when fortunately a couple of us noticed and dashed out to retrieve him. Disaster was averted.

Now, that was a child surrounded by otherwise vigilant, loving adults, and yet we still couldn't keep an eye on his every move.

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I can rememberwhen my son was 4yrs old(9 now) and we visited hotels with his buddies at a various resorts. All the kids Foreign and Japanese knew that bouncing on beds and other furniture would earn them a "lug round the earhole".

Feel sorry for the little one, but it is the parents fault for NOT raising them pfroperly and I never stayed in a hotel where a window could be FULLY opened easily.

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What an awful accident. But why was the window open enough that a person could fall out (4 years old or otherwise)?

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I blame the hotel...period.

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Frungy - Try stopping a child from jumping on the bed and it lasts only as long as you're actually holding on to them.

Or, why not try closing the bloody window first? This event is not an accident. It is the result of carelessness on the parents behalf. How can you blame a four year old for jumping on a bed? It's impossible! However, you can very easily blame parents who don't have the common sense to close a 6th floor window 40cm away from where a kid is jumping, true?

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Showed the article and pic to my 9yr old son, even he sez the parents are to be blamed. 1.) For not teaching their kids properly. 2.) For being careless. 3.) For opening the window beyond the safety gap/stop.

If the child did it while the parents were out of the room = understandable ...

As for the guys blaming the Hotel, what should they do only provide futons, etc and but bars across ALL the windows. Maybe put surveillance cameras in all rooms to supervise their guests?

Sorry, but there is time when people need to stop pushing the "blame" onto others and accept responsiblity for their decisions and actions.

HTH.

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I'm glad I'm not a child of some of these posters here. Get real. I mean are we living in a new era where discipline or common sense doesn't exist? Got to be kidding me! LOL I'm sure some of your parents had enough common sense not to do what these parents did, or you wouldn't be here posting non-sense.

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If it sounds like a duck ,looks like a duck,then it is a duck, either the parents are in on it or they are grossely irresponsible......

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@marcels: I've been wondering the same exact thing. All of a sudden we go from abused, out right killing children, finding dead children every other day stories. To "Ohh my child just happened to fall out a window." story. I mean what are these parents getting for neglect? Now compare that to murder and you start to wonder if some of these are out right set up. Not saying all of them are, I mean there are some idiots out there as well.

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Japanese parents have very little common sense. Just stand at any intersection on any given day anywhere in the country and watch how many cars go by with kids inside freely roaming about in the cabin, even leaning out the window or wiggling wee hands through the sun roof. There's almost no reason to open a window in a hotel, Japanese are very big on privacy and would never freely open a hotel window. Either something is fishy here or this ranks as gross negligence on the part of the parents. Who would let their kid jump up and down on hotel room beds to begin with ? Thoughtlessness is no excuse for allowing your child to die so needlessly.

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I don't really see what's so wrong about a kid jumping on a bed; I did it all the time. I can see how doing it next to a window would be a problem, though. I think it's just a freak accident, because we don't really know what happened with the parents. They could have been telling the kid to stop, when she flew out the window or they could have just been watching TV and not paying attention. You don't really know.

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Agree with my fellow poster Gyoza, something smells awfully fishy here...hmmm

Nonetheless....RIP baby girl :(

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@benhur

not even that..my friend...they burn the bodies in this country...that baby girl will get cremated and her ashes put inside an urn.

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Tragic. She must have jumped from one bed to the other and carried on the trajectory out of the window.

I rarely find a hotel room where the windows open more than a few inches.

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There's almost no reason to open a window in a hotel, Japanese are very big on privacy and would never freely open a hotel window.

Soggygyoza - I think you are jumping to conclusions. I like opening hotel room windows where I can. I also do not think that opening a window when you are on the 6th floor would affect your privacy.

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Sue the hotel for $ millions.

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I have 3 kids, and I am positive every sane parent would agree that you don´t let a 4-year bounce around next to an open window on the 6th floor.

That does not a Ph.d. or special instruction to understand. Good grief.

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Silly parents. RIP poor child.

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Seems that there are no safety protocols for high buildings in Japan, hence, we have all these needless deaths of children falling from open windows and balconies. How many deaths will it take before Japan requires building owners to ad protection to prevent people and children from falling?

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Yeah, I would like one of you to tell me that you've never jumped on furniture, much less beds, as a kid. Get off your high horse and recognize this as a simple freak accident.

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It DOES raise the question as to why a window on the 6th floor could be opened far enough to let a child fall out.

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My 3 year old son loves to jump on beds when we stay at hotels too but as some people mentioned here most of the hotels Ive stayed locked the windows and I wonder why this hotel didnt. Also most hotels I´ve stayed didn`t have the beds located so close to the window like the one in this article and we can clearly see how unsafe is this hotel by seeing the picture posted. Who would put a family with such young kid in a room which has a wide unlocked window right next to the bed and no warnings?? Although the parents might have fault too for the negligence in opening a window which is close to a bed when their kid is jumping around instead of using air conditioner. Bringing a 4 year old girl from Kagawa to Hyogo prefecture to watch a boxing tournament is also something strange.

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after she bounced off a bed and went through the window of the 6th-floor hotel room

I fail to swallow that as to what actually happened.. very fishy indeed.

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djjuice

" no safety protocols for high buildings in Japan "

No building code in the world can compensate for parental stupidity. At some point, people have to acknowledge responsibility. You have a 4-year old, you are responsible for watching her, period.

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@SoggyGyoza

Japanese parents have very little common sense. Just stand at any intersection on any given day anywhere in the country and watch

Indeed!!!

I don't know what it takes...? And it's the same kind of deaths / accidents occurring, week after week.... Either a kid is being left unattended and falls out of a window, or gets backed over by a car, with parents, less than 1 meter away, or letting their 2 year old cross a busy intersection, while mom is on the keitai, typing a mail...

It's like, nobody learns, anything from what happened yesterday, last week, or last year... Pitiful!

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Silly death, silly parents.

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This is unbelievably sad. Most hotels in the US have windows that only open a few inches. Superstar Eric Clapton's son fell 53 stories out of a New York Apartment building and died. As a mother, I can't even imagine the horror this family must be experiencing. I pray the family is able to recover as much as possible.

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Let us pray for the little girl and for her parents.

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