The mobility scooter which the victim was riding is seen at Kan-onji Police Station in Kan-onji, Kagawa Prefecture, on Aug. 26, 2021. The scooter was wrecked by the impact. (Mainichi/Nana Kita)

       TAKAMATSU -- An elderly woman on a mobility scooter was hit and killed by an express train at a rail crossing in Kagawa Prefecture on the morning of Aug. 26.

       The accident took place on the JR Yosan Line at around 6:50 a.m. at the crossing between Kan-onji and Toyohama stations in the city of Kan-onji. A junior high school student nearby who witnessed the accident contacted their mother, who called emergency services, saying that "a mobility scooter got stuck on the tracks and a train hit it."

       Hanaina railway crossing, where a woman riding a mobility scooter was hit and killed by an express train, is seen in Kan-onji, Kagawa Prefecture, on Aug. 26, 2021. (Mainichi/Nana Kita)

       The victim has been identified as 75-year-old Fusako Ishikawa, a local resident.

       About 30 passengers and crew on the five-car limited express train Ishizuchi 103 were uninjured. The crossing was equipped with an alarm and barriers.

       The Kagawa Prefectural Police's Kan-onji Police Station is investigating the cause of the accident. Officers believe that the scooter's tire may have gotten stuck in the rails.

       The National Institute of Technology and Evaluation issued a warning in 2018 regarding railroad crossing accidents involving mobility scooters and electric wheelchairs, noting that there have been a series of serious incidents including deaths. In addition to tires getting stuck, there have reportedly been confirmed cases of scooters veering off the edge of crossings, or batteries failing mid-crossing.

       (Japanese original by Yudai Katami, Takamatsu Bureau)

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