Four railway workers died on Thursday after being struck by a limited-express train while clearing weeds on the tracks at Shin-Kanuma Station in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Tobu Railway and police confirmed the fatalities, prompting an investigation by the Japan Transport Safety Board into the station’s safety lookout procedures.
The victims were part of a contracting crew performing vegetation-clearing work along the rails. According to Tochigi Prefectural Police and the Tochigi prefectural police department, the four men who lost their lives were Kazuyoshi Ishikawa, 67, and Toshihiko Watanabe, 65, both from Utsunomiya, along with Shigenobu Oke, 53, and Kazunari Sato, 54, both from Nikko.
The Collision at Shin-Kanuma Station
The six-car train, identified as the Spacia X2, was travelling from Tobu-Nikko Station toward Asakusa Station in Tokyo. It was scheduled to make a regular stop at Shin-Kanuma and was approaching the platform when the impact occurred.
Emergency services rushed to the scene following an emergency call placed at approximately 10:45 a.m. First responders found the four workers unconscious near the tracks or beneath the train. They were transported to a hospital where they were subsequently pronounced dead.
The maintenance operation involved a total crew of 10 employees from a subcontractor, which included designated lookouts. While the four victims were struck near the tracks under the station platform, the remaining workers, including three uninjured crew members, escaped harm.
Lookout Protocols and Railway Safety Investigations
Standard railway safety protocols in Japan require a designated lookout to monitor approaching traffic and warn workers to clear the tracks before signaling the driver with a flag. The driver must then acknowledge the signal by sounding the horn. Tobu Railway officials stated that the driver did sound the horn after seeing a flag signal, but the company launched an immediate review to determine why the workers were still on the tracks.
Company representatives revealed during a Tokyo news conference that one lookout was stationed roughly 80 meters away, but a second lookout supposed to be positioned 300 meters away was not in a position to communicate with the others.
Takao Suzuki, head of the railway business division at Tobu Railway, offered a direct public apology during the company briefing.
“We deeply apologize to the bereaved families. We will thoroughly implement measures to prevent a recurrence so that such a serious accident never happens again.”
The Japan Transport Safety Board dispatched three railway accident investigators to the site to examine the circumstances surrounding the collision. Services along the Tobu Nikko Line experienced temporary disruptions, with operations between Shin-Tochigi and Shimo-Imaichi stations suspended before resuming at 3:22 p.m. on the same day, affecting roughly 2,600 passengers.
Historical Context of Track Maintenance Accidents
While Japan boasts one of the most extensive and punctual passenger rail networks globally, fatal accidents involving maintenance crews have occasionally occurred during infrastructure work. Past major incidents include a February 1999 accident on the Yamanote Freight Line in Tokyo where an out-of-service train struck five cable replacement workers, and a January 2006 incident on the Hakubi Line in Tottori Prefecture that killed three West Japan Railway workers during track maintenance.
The Spacia X itself is a flagship fleet introduced by Tobu Railway in July 2023 as the company’s first new Spacia model in 33 years, connecting Tokyo’s Asakusa district with tourist destinations such as Nikko. The ongoing investigation by safety officials focuses on communication gaps among the ground crew and whether the warning systems functioned as intended before the express train entered the station.
