Person Killed by Shinkansen Identified as Male Care Worker

June 15, 2018

Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Pref.- Police said Friday that the person killed after being hit by a Shinkansen bullet train in the city of Kitakyushu in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Fukuoka on Thursday has been identified as a 52-year-old male care worker.

The Fukuoka prefectural police department's Yahatanishi branch in the city suspects that the man, from the city of Nogata in Fukuoka, may have committed suicide.

According to the police, the man's minivehicle was parked on a road close to the area where part of his body was found. The police are investigating how the he got onto the tracks of the Sanyo Shinkansen Line.

The nose section of the Tokyo-bound Nozomi No. 176 train was damaged in the collision. The incident occurred when the bullet train was heading for Kokura Station in Fukuoka, after starting from Hakata Station in the same prefecture, on Thursday afternoon. Jiji Press