Prefectural police establish special investigation team for express train collision at Tochigi/Shinkanuma Station

In an interview with investigators on the 21st, it was learned that the prefectural police voluntarily interviewed lookouts who had been alerted to an approaching train in order to confirm the circumstances surrounding the accident in which an express train collided with workers weeding at Shin-Kanuma Station on the Tobu Nikko Line in Kanuma City, Tochigi Prefecture, killing four people. On the same day, the Prefectural Police's First Investigative Division established a special investigation team at Kanuma Police Station as a case of professional negligence resulting in death. Investigate the detailed cause of the accident.

Meanwhile, on the same day, the Japan Transport Safety Board's railway accident investigators interviewed the express driver and conductor about the circumstances at the time of the accident, and checked for traces of the vehicle that had come into contact with the worker.

Even though there were workers near the railroad tracks at the scene, the driver believed that the evacuation had been completed. The work was contracted to group company Tobu Construction (Nikko City, Prefecture), and prefectural police are investigating whether there were any problems with the safety management system, such as coordination between watchmen.

According to Tobu Railway, the procedure for evacuating workers is: (1) When a train approaches, a watchman signals the workers with a whistle. (2) Workers interrupt their work and evacuate while talking to the watchman. (3) After confirming that everyone has evacuated, the watchman signals the driver to level the yellow flag. There were company regulations such as the driver sounding the horn when he saw the flag.

At the time of the accident, three watchmen were stationed, and a ``train watch'' was located approximately 80 meters away. The express driver explained, ``I sounded the horn after seeing the train watchman's signal.''

A "relay lookout" was also planned to be placed about 300 meters in front of the station to signal when a train approaches about 500 meters. However, ``(the relay watchman) was unable to communicate with the train watchman.''