88 year old dies on 40 m grade crossing in Tsurumi
鶴見の踏切88歳死亡 高齢者 横断困難な40メートル
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/national/news/CK2013082502000131.html
On 2013.08.23, an 88-year-old man with his walking cane was struck by a train and died when attempting to cross the Keihin–Tōhoku Line’s Umio (生見尾) crossing in Namamugi 3-chōme in Yokohama City’s Tsurumi Ward. Activist groups surveyed the scene of the accident on 2013.08.24 and lobbied to make the crossing barrier-free immediately.
The particular crossing in question is about 40 m long and crosses six tracks, but features waiting areas in between tracks, with emergency stop buttons to halt trains and automatic sensor devices to detect obstructions. The buttons, however, require someone else to be present at the scene to recognize a safety issue, and in this case, the sensors failed to detect any obstructions. The victim was unable to cross the 22 m distance to the waiting area in the middle and was struck by a train.
JR spokespersons noted that the sensors are designed according to government standards and can detect large obstructions such as stranded cars, but do not activate for objects the size of people. There was also a pedestrian bridge constructed adjacent to the crossing, but it was not improved for barrier-free access, forcing users to ascend and descend stairs. The activist group has called for the undergrounding of the tracks or installation of elevators on the pedestrian overpass, but JR East says they currently do not have any plans for improvements at the crossing.
According to data compiled by the MLIT, many grade crossing accidents involve the elderly—of the 902 incidents between FY2010 and FY2012, 448 cases (49.7%) involved victims 60 years of age or older. In 2007, the MLIT inspected the approx. 36,000 grade crossings nationwide and identified 1,960 crossings in need of immediate improvement. Of these, 589 crossings stayed closed for a cumulative total of 40 minutes or more during peak hours and were classified as
akazu no fumikiri (開かずの踏切), “grade crossings that never open”. While the MLIT acknowledges the need for critical improvements to solve the issue, progress at many locations is taking longer than hoped due to financial difficulties.
There were 295 grade crossing accidents in FY2012, a 10.9% year-over-year decrease, although the number of fatalities increased 1.9% to 121, with 2 involving persons with physical disabilities.
The crossing and pedestrian overpass in question:
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The crossing in question, walking in the northbound direction. The photo in the article is taken facing southbound. This is just the JR crossing though, as there’s a separate crossing for the parallel Keikyū Main Line, which has a nearby station at this location (Namamugi).
For sure, the Tōkaidō Main Line between Tōkyō and Yokohama has some of the nastier crossings, as there’s simply too many tracks in many of the places, what with the Tōkaidō Line, Keihin–Tōhoku Line, and Yokosuka Line / Shōnan–Shinjuku Line (2 tracks each), plus a pair of freight tracks and a pair of tracks nearby for the parallel Keikyū Main Line. These are dense neighborhoods, too, so there is a lot of pedestrian and bike flow at these crossings. This particular section between Namamugi and Tsurumi may be one of the worst sections, as there’s something like 5-6 pedestrian bridges spaced at intervals of 100 m to 200 m. I think because of these overpasses, and the fact that there’s usually sufficient dead space between track pairs to include waiting zones to split the crossing into more manageable parts, that these locations don’t strictly qualify as 開かずの踏切, so improvements here probably don’t seem as urgent as at other locations.