This photo provided by West Japan Railway Co. shows a locker at Shin-Iwakuni Station. An alcohol tester was stored in the upper left compartment, and the leaked alcohol disinfectant spray was in the center compartment.

       OSAKA -- The operation of a shinkansen bullet train in west Japan was canceled on Sept. 27 after breath tests on the driver and conductor showed positive results for alcohol, but an investigation found that the device had accidentally detected disinfectant spray containing alcohol.

       West Japan Railway Co. (JR West) suspended the operation of the Kodama No. 838 train between Shin-Iwakuni Station in the Yamaguchi Prefecture city of Iwakuni and Hiroshima Station on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line on the morning of Sept. 27. A breath test had detected alcohol on the male driver in his 60s and a female conductor in her 30s, who were supposed to ride Kodama No. 838 from Shin-Iwakuni Station, where the Shin-Osaka bound train would depart, but the company could not arrange a substitute crew.

       The two denied drinking alcohol, and an investigation by the train operator found that alcohol sanitizer had leaked from a container in the same locker in which the breath tester was stored. The device apparently detected the leaked disinfectant.

       According to JR West, the alcohol breath tester was stored in a locker at Shin-Iwakuni Station. The conductor's bag was in the lower right compartment of the locker, and alcohol disinfectant spray leaked inside the bag. When the same situation was recreated, the device detected alcohol, leading the company to conclude that the breath tester was activated apparently because of the evaporated alcohol filling the locker compartments.

       Before JR West found the cause of the problem, the company's President Kazuaki Hasegawa had apologized at a news conference, saying, "We are really sorry for causing trouble to our passengers."

       This incident affected about 300 people, including some 20 passengers who had to take the next shinkansen at Shin-Iwakuni Station. Though the Kodama No. 838 ran between Hiroshima and Shin-Osaka stations using a substitute train, its departure from Hiroshima Station was delayed by 14 minutes.

       (Japanese original by Masaki Takahashi, Osaka City News Department)

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