Police said Saturday that a 56-year-old man in a wheelchair died after he was hit by a train at a crossing in Tokyo.
According to police, the accident happened at a crossing near Higashi-Nagasaki Station on the Seibu Ikebukuro line in Toshima Ward at around 11:30 p.m. on Friday, Fuji TV reported.
The train driver was quoted by police as saying he saw the wheelchair on the tracks and applied the emergency brake but it was too late.
Police have not yet released the victim's name and are continuing their investigation to find out what he was doing out at that time of night.
© Japan Today
14 Comments
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Stephen Knight
As if a 56-year old man shouldn't be out at night just by virtue of being in a wheelchair?? Maybe he was a salaryman on his way home after a late night at work.
Not everyone in a wheelchair is a patient or invalid...
Spidey
"Intentional" was the first word that came to mind.
S
trinklets2
There was a time when a man in wheelchair too couldn't move as the wheel was stucked in the rail. I pushed his wheelchair and asked where he was going. He said to the supermarket. Knowing the supermarket is around 1.5km. And it was quite cold. I was wondering if he doesn't have any relative to do that for him. there are supermarkets open for 24 hrs. The man in the news could be going there too or as the other poster says did it on purpose. Whichever, still so sad to end life like this.
hatsoff
Spidey - why? Does being in a wheelchair automatically make you think that the person must have wanted to kill himself? I thought we'd moved on from the word invalid meaning 'invalid - not valid'.
hoserfella
hatsoff - Calm down a bit and ask yourself why the guy was in the middle of the tracks. There you go....
Serrano
hoser - He might have got stuck?
hoserfella
Serrano - or he may have been suicidal.
Serrano
hoser - True. We don't know.
hoserfella
no we don't, but hatsoff has no cause to be so overly PC when it is suggested that the guy was suicidal. Sitting in the middle of train tracks tends to make one wonder.
hatsoff
Hoser - there's nothing PC about my comment. I'm just calling BS on the automatic assumption that you and Spidey share, namely that:
Man in wheelchair = useless life ∴ suicidal
You really do live in a simple world, don't you?
hoserfella
Hats off - "simple" is taking for granted the obvious fact the guy just happened to b in the middle of the train tracks. Neither I nor spidey said anything about useless lives. That was your own silly reasoning
hatsoff
Hoser - nice try, but you just can't see it, can you? You're equating being "on the tracks" (the article says nothing about being in the middle) with waiting to be hit.
Like saying someone's waiting outside a bank or loitering outside the bank. Oh well. You tried, I suppose.
hoserfella
hatsoff - If somehow you are writing this from a wheelchair and are enjoying a full and active life, well bully for you, my little friend.
In the meantime, if you think that it's not suspicious that the man was on the tracks ( so very sorry for insinuating that it was in the middle and not, say, a little to the left-center or right-center) so late at night and not contemplating suicide in one of the most suicidal societies on earth....you really shouldn't go into policing as an occupation.
Or perhaps you think all wheelchair-bound people have weakly little arms and need people to push them around everywhere? hatsoff, if that is the case, you should be ashamed!
Oh well. You tried, I suppose.
hoserfella
hatsoff - Im curious, were you under the impression that trains had huge wings on either side to sweep away all before it? Are you at all aware that a person would almost literally have to be "on" or "between" the tracks to be struck? Oh dear...