A Taiwanese tourist was killed on Thursday by a limited express train while posing for photographs with three others using train tracks as backdrop at a train station in a small town in Japan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday.
The accident occurred at about 9am at Wakai Station in Shimanto, a town in Takaoka District of Kochi Prefecture, when one of the four was taking pictures of the others, including Ou Ying-yu (歐婷玉), the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday, citing Japanese media reports.
Ou, 40, was fatally struck, while her friends were lucky to escape, with one suffering minor ankle injury, when the train failed to brake in time, the report said.
The train involved in the crash could operate at a maximum speed of 120kph, equivalent to the maximum speed of the Tzuchiang-class (自強號) train in Taiwan.
It is owned by Tosa Kuroshio Railway Co and runs between Kubokawa and Nakamura stations without stopping at Wakai Station, according to the report.
An emergency brake on the train was applied 300m from Wakai Station when the train driver saw the tourists on the tracks, the report said.
Ou was rushed to a hospital, but doctors were unable to save her, the ministry said, adding that her family in Taiwan and relatives in Tokyo have been informed of her death.
There are signs and warning devices along the tracks that warn tourists to stay off the tracks in English and in Japanese, the ministry said.
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