A tragic workplace accident has shaken Japan’s renowned safe transportation sector: four crew members conducting weed management work along a railway line were struck and killed by an incoming express train at a station north of Tokyo on Thursday, local law enforcement and railway officials confirmed. The deadly collision unfolded at Shin-Kanuma Station, located along Tobu Railway’s Nikko Line, and involved the Spacia express train heading toward central Tokyo, according to Tochigi Prefectural Police.
The four victims, comprising three on-site workers and one supervisory staff member, were immediately transported to a nearby medical facility by emergency responders, but were ultimately pronounced dead shortly after arrival, both police and operator Tobu Railway Co. confirmed. Six additional personnel present at the work site escaped unharmed: the group includes two other herbicide spraying workers, three lookout staff assigned to monitor oncoming traffic, and a second on-site supervisor. None of the roughly 50 passengers aboard the colliding express train suffered any injuries in the incident.
At this early stage of the probe, investigators and railway representatives have not been able to confirm why the working crew failed to clear the active track ahead of the approaching train, nor what the designated lookout personnel were doing in the moments before the collision. Per standard Japanese railway work safety protocols, lookouts are required to alert fellow workers of incoming trains using visible signals such as flags, or audible alerts including whistles and portable microphones. Tobu Railway officials noted that the full sequence of events leading up to Thursday’s tragedy remains under active investigation, and the company is fully cooperating with law enforcement and transport authorities to pinpoint the root cause.
Takao Suzuki, the head of Tobu Railway’s railway business division, issued a formal public apology following the fatal incident. “We take this severe accident seriously and we will ensure preventive measures are implemented so this never happens again,” Suzuki stated in a press briefing.
This event marks a rare fatal railway accident in Japan, a country globally recognized for its industry-leading standards of railway safety and on-time performance. In the immediate aftermath of the collision, all regular services along the affected Nikko Line were suspended for multiple hours to allow accident investigators to access and process the site. Railway officials confirmed that full service along the line resumed later the same day, after investigators completed their initial on-site inspection.