{"id":77421,"date":"2026-08-20T11:55:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T11:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/77421\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T11:55:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T11:55:06","slug":"four-dead-after-being-hit-by-train-near-tokyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/77421\/","title":{"rendered":"Four dead after being hit by train near Tokyo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four railway workers have died after being struck by an express train<\/a> while carrying out weeding work on the tracks at a station in Japan<\/a>‘s Tochigi prefecture.<\/p>\n

The four men, who were in their 50s and 60s, were hit at about 10.45am local time on Thursday at Shin-Kanuma station in Kanuma, north of Tokyo, according to police and Tobu Railway, which operates the line.<\/p>\n

The workers were part of a seven-person team clearing weeds from the railway tracks<\/a> when they were struck by a six-car Spacia X limited express train travelling towards Tokyo’s Asakusa Station from Tobu-Nikko Station.<\/p>\n

Three of the victims were found on the tracks following the collision, while the fourth was found on the station’s platform.<\/p>\n

All four were taken to hospital, where they were later confirmed dead.<\/p>\n

The train was approaching Shin-Kanuma and was due to stop at the station when the accident happened.<\/p>\n

About 50 passengers were aboard the train, but none were injured, Tobu Railway said.<\/p>\n

The other three workers involved in the maintenance operation escaped injury.<\/p>\n

The collision brought services on part of the Tobu Nikko Line to a temporary halt. Trains between Shin-Tochigi and Shimo-Imaichi stations were suspended before services resumed at 3.22pm local time.<\/p>\n

The circumstances of the crash are now being investigated, particularly how the workers came to be on the tracks when the train approached.<\/p>\n

Tobu Railway said a safety system designed to protect workers from approaching trains was in operation at the time.<\/p>\n

Under the procedure, a designated lookout monitors the tracks for approaching trains and warns workers to move clear.<\/p>\n

“The usual lookout system was operating as normal – when a train approaches, a lookout waves a flag and, once the driver acknowledges it, sounds the horn,” a representative from Tobu Railway told the BBC.<\/p>\n

“We are currently investigating why the accident occurred despite this.”<\/p>\n

A passenger on the train told Japanese broadcaster NHK that they heard a “strange noise” before the train made an emergency stop.<\/p>\n

Passengers were then kept aboard for a period while railway staff investigated what had happened.<\/p>\n

Fatal railway accidents are relatively uncommon in Japan, which has one of the world’s most extensive passenger rail networks.<\/p>\n

The train involved in Thursday’s crash was a limited express service, a category of high-speed trains that is second only to the Shinkansen bullet trains in speed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four railway workers have died after being struck by an express train while carrying out weeding work on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[49684,8,49682,49683,49680,17707,21599,52,49681],"class_list":["post-77421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tokyo","tag-asakusa-station","tag-japan","tag-railway-workers","tag-shin-kanuma-station","tag-tobu-nikko-line","tag-tobu-railway","tag-tochigi-prefecture","tag-tokyo","tag-train-approaches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}