Japan - Four staffs on the Tobu Nikko Line were struck and died by a limited express train

[Gostav]

This horrific accident occurred on August 20, 2026, at Shin-Kanuma Station on the Tobu* Nikko Line in Kanuma City.

*Tobu Railway is a Japanese private railway company

https://www.tokyoreporter.com/japan...rain-in-tochigi-over-safety-miscommunication/ English-language media in Japan

TOCHIGI (TR) – Four maintenance workers were struck and killed by a limited express Tobu Railway train while clearing weeds on the tracks at a station on Thursday morning, police and railway officials said, reports Jiji Press (Aug. 20).

The fatal incident occurred at around 10:45 a.m. at Shin-Kanuma Station on the Tobu Nikko Line in Kanuma City. The six-car Spacia X No. 2 train, traveling from Tobu Nikko to Asakusa, plowed into the men as they were spraying herbicide near the tracks underneath the station platform.

Tochigi Prefectural Police identified the victims as Kazuyoshi Ishikawa, 67, and Toshihiko Watanabe, 65, both from Utsunomiya City, along with Nikko City residents Shigenobu Omo, 53, and Kazuya Sato, 54.

The four men were employees of a subcontracting company and part of a 10-person crew. The tragedy appears to have stemmed from a catastrophic breakdown in safety protocols.

According to Tobu Railway, a lookout stationed about 80 meters away was responsible for warning the workers of oncoming trains and signaling the driver with a flag once the workers had evacuated the tracks. The train’s driver reportedly told investigators, “I saw the lookout’s signal and sounded the horn.”

However, another lookout scheduled to be stationed 300 meters ahead of the station to relay approaching train warnings was allegedly unable to communicate with the primary lookout. Tobu Railway stated they are currently “confirming the details” of this lapse in communication.

In a press conference held in Tokyo later that afternoon, Takao Suzuki, head of railway operations for Tobu Railway, bowed deeply in apology.

“We offer our deepest and most sincere apologies to the bereaved families,” Suzuki said, vowing to thoroughly implement measures to ensure such a severe accident never happens again.

None of the approximately 50 passengers on board the train were injured.

The Japan Transport Safety Board has dispatched three railway accident investigators to the scene to probe the circumstances leading up to the deaths.

The incident temporarily halted services between Shin-Tochigi and Shimo-Imaichi stations, affecting roughly 2,600 passengers.

The nearby surveillance cameras captured the moment the express train came to an emergency stop.

 

[eldomtom2]

Not the first case of a worker being fatally struck by a train in Japan this year, sadly. According to the Japan Transport Safety Board's website in addition to this incident there was another fatality in March this year.

 

[Beebman]

NHK World has today posted an update in English on the accident which confirms that it was essentially caused by miscommunication between the two lookouts:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20260824_05/

Japan police suspect multiple errors caused fatal accident at railway station​

Police in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, suspect multiple errors may have caused a fatal accident at a station on Tobu Railway's Nikko Line on Thursday.

Four male workers were hit by a limited express train and died when spraying herbicide along the railway tracks at Shin-kanuma Station in Kanuma City.

Police on Sunday searched the offices of Tobu Kensetsu, a subsidiary of Tobu Railway, on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death. Tobu Kensetsu was subcontracted by the parent company to remove weeds along train tracks.

Tobu Railway officials say that there were two lookouts in the vicinity of the station on that day to ensure the safety of workers along the tracks.

The first lookout was tasked with checking for an approaching train and informing the second lookout of the train. The second was supposed to have confirmed that workers had moved to a safe area before the train entered the station.

The officials say the first lookout was in a situation where they were unable to communicate with the other lookout when the train approached.

The train driver reportedly entered the platform after receiving a signal from the second lookout that all the workers had left the tracks. But they had not.

Police suspect multiple errors in information-sharing and the procedure for the train entering the station may have been involved.

Police are questioning the lookouts and an official overseeing the weeding work to find out why the train entered the station when the workers were still there.

The linked article has an embedded video which has much the same info as in the quoted text but it shows the relative positions of each of the two lookouts.