Stabbing and fire on Keio Line train to Shinjuku

[TokyoImperialPalace]

A man dressed as the Joker stabbed a elderly man, sprayed some chemicals and started a fire. As passengers fled to the front of the train, the train carried onto the next station but appeared to overrun the platform slightly which meant that the doors/gates had to be manually opened, which caused passengers to panic and break the windows in order to escape (it seems that they did not know about the emergency door handle).

 

When police got to the station, the culprit was in a carriage just sitting on a seat smoking tobacco.

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2021 by TokyoImperialPalace

[bill937ca]

Japanese TV report.

 

 

 

 

[railsquid]

7 hours ago, TokyoImperialPalace said:

A man dressed as the Joker stabbed a elderly man, sprayed some chemicals and started a fire. As passengers fled to the front of the train, the train carried onto the next station but appeared to overrun the platform slightly which meant that the doors/gates had to be manually opened, which caused passengers to panic and break the windows in order to escape (it seems that they did not know about the emergency door handle).

 

 

It doesn't look like any windows were broken; they open far enough to facilitate escape for exactly this kind of circumstance.

 

Though I do wonder why it was not possible to open the platform doors when it was obvious there was a compelling need to evacuate the train.

 

[bill937ca]

Reports are that the platform doors didn't work because the train overshot the platform.

[railsquid]

Yeah, that's what you'd want in the normal case, but (from my handwavy non-expert armchair perspective) seems like it may have been desirable to have had e.g. the platform staff override that, so I am wondering why that didn't happen, and whether that was for a good reason (e.g. as the train doors weren't aligned, people were climbing over them so opening them may have caused injury), or not (e.g. unforeseen event for which there was no drill).

 

As "stabby losers trying to set fire to trains" seems to be a growth phenomenon, I am somewhat interested in what might happen in this kind of situation. Note to self: pro-actively note emergency train and platform door overrides (I'm pretty sure I've seen the latter) just in case.

[railsquid]

Per this report: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/7bc057cae8aa419e8438b3f8d03a441bb673afaf

 

Quote

運転士は非常通報装置が作動したため緊急停車しようとした際、途中で非常用のドアコックが使用され、加速できなくなったのが原因としている。

 

i.e. the door cocks had been activated before the train came to a halt, which meant the driver was unable to come to a controlled halt.

 

Also:

 

Quote

京王電鉄によると、通常と異なる場所に止まったため隙間が生じ、転落の可能性があるとして車両ドアを開けない判断をした。

 

i.e. due to the train stopping in an irregular position, there may have been a risk of falling (presumably into the gap between train and platform if trying to squeeze along the train side of the platform doors) if the doors had been open.

[TokyoImperialPalace]

My understanding is that there is a emergency door handle which can be pulled to manually open the door (as long as the train is stationary), but that many people were not aware of where the handle was. However @railsquid has information that the door cocks had been activated prior to the train coming to a halt - so I presume that the train driver over-rode the emergency brake since stopping in the middle of a tunnel could make the situation worse and more dangerous (passing trains...). I am not sure as to the relationship between activating the emergency door handle and being unable to align the train with the platform doors, but it seems to me something that needs to be looked at and plans revised.

 

Usually JR trains have the handle located next to the doors, but some older models on other operators have the handle located under the seat, which may have been true on this train (looking at pictures of the Keio train involved, there does not seem to be any handle beside the door where I would presume it would be). I might go and have a look at this train today, but quite a few comments online say that they are not aware of the so-called "door cocks".

 

One interesting feature of Japanese trains which I never really understood but now I have come to respect, is the doors between carriages and gangways. In most western trains these doors are being replaced by open gangways, but in Japan the doors are kept for safety against smoke and air borne chemicals.

Edited November 1, 2021 by TokyoImperialPalace

[TokyoImperialPalace]

If it means anything to anyone here, I took a similar train to the one involved in the incident today. The emergency door handles are located below the seat beside the door, and I believe that every other door has one. A small notice above the seat explains how to use the handle, but I think the handles would be hard to locate for those not aware of where they could be found. 

 

I think what happened was that the train overran the platform (not sure why) and the emergency door handle was pulled before the driver could adjust the position of the train. Even with that particular door, the passengers could not work out how to open the gate. 

 

I agree that it would be stupid to open the gates when all the passengers are climbing over them. I also agree that there was virtually no time between arriving at the station and passengers climbing through the windows. I still wonder why the driver overran the platform and whether it would have been okay to open the train doors anyway.

 

 

[bill937ca]

Activating an emergency stop alarm may kill the automatic train stop. This is something that does not happen every day. The train operator may not have realized at first he wasn't doing an automatic stop and had a late braking reaction.

Edited November 1, 2021 by bill937ca

[marknewton]

That's possible, Bill, but I think it's also possible that the train stopped short of the platform rather than overshooting. I don't know anything about the specifics of the Keio 8000 series stock, but I'm assuming that they have traction interlocking. If that's the case, and it works in the same way as it does on my trains, once the emergency door release has been activated the traction interlocking prevents the train from powering. I've had that experience approaching a station on a rising grade, and as a result stopped well short of the platform.

 

But as I say, I don't know enough about the Keio trains to be certain. I'd be interested to learn if the emergency door release has any effect on the ATS system.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[railsquid]

The sequence of events, as I understand it from various reports, is:

 

- incident occurs

- passenger pushes emergency alarm, which provides communication with the train guard, but passenger runs off before saying anything

- guard tells driver to stop at the next station

- before the train stops, a passenger activates an emergency door release, which similar to what Mark describes, forces the train to a halt (stopping short) and the driver is then unable to position it correctly

- train guard judges it unsafe to open the train doors due to the misalignment; platform staff come to the same conclusion about opening the platform doors

Edited November 2, 2021 by railsquid

[JR 500系]

This looks to be planned right from the start, on Halloween night, plus the perpentrator already has aims of killing 2 person and getting a death sentenance... He should be locked away for good seeing how much harm he can actually cause those innocent people, and seek medical help...

 

Would there be a revised safety protocal in other train lines/ companies in the aftermath of this incident? 

[railsquid]

There are mutterings about "improvements", mainly involving additional security guards on trains and in stations; but I don't see any practical way of magically ensuring stabby losers with knives are unable to board trains... There's probably room for improving the reaction to this kind of situation; in this case CCTV on the train would have given the train guard a better idea of what was going on (so e.g. maybe an announcement that "the train will be making an emergency stopping at the next station in X minutes and all doors will open, so leave the emergency releases alone" might have mitigated the evacuation issues), but that's supposed to be an ongoing programme anyway.

[Socimi]

10 hours ago, marknewton said:

That's possible, Bill, but I think it's also possible that the train stopped short of the platform rather than overshooting. I don't know anything about the specifics of the Keio 8000 series stock, but I'm assuming that they have traction interlocking. If that's the case, and it works in the same way as it does on my trains, once the emergency door release has been activated the traction interlocking prevents the train from powering. I've had that experience approaching a station on a rising grade, and as a result stopped well short of the platform.

 

But as I say, I don't know enough about the Keio trains to be certain. I'd be interested to learn if the emergency door release has any effect on the ATS system.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

 

The Keio 8000 Series should be indeed equipped with a traction interlocking system, as almost all Japanese multiple units built after world war 2 have. 

[Socimi]

Also, it appears that the train involved in the incident was an Express service - the station where it stopped (Kokuryo station) is served only by local trains, therefore in normal circumstances, an express train would've passed through without stopping. 

[marknewton]

1 hour ago, Socimi said:

The Keio 8000 Series should be indeed equipped with a traction interlocking system, as almost all Japanese multiple units built after world war 2 have. 

Thanks for the confirmation. 👍

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[TokyoImperialPalace]

19 hours ago, marknewton said:

That's possible, Bill, but I think it's also possible that the train stopped short of the platform rather than overshooting. I don't know anything about the specifics of the Keio 8000 series stock, but I'm assuming that they have traction interlocking. If that's the case, and it works in the same way as it does on my trains, once the emergency door release has been activated the traction interlocking prevents the train from powering. I've had that experience approaching a station on a rising grade, and as a result stopped well short of the platform.

 

But as I say, I don't know enough about the Keio trains to be certain. I'd be interested to learn if the emergency door release has any effect on the ATS system.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

 

My initial view that the train had overrun the platform was based entirely on social media, so it might be that the train actually stopped short of the platform and that I got the wrong impression from social media. In that case then it is entirely possible that the driver and conductor simply did not have enough time to do a quick "check" before the passengers started clambering out of the windows and onto the platform doors.

 

asahi.com/ajw/articles/14473022

 

An English language article seems to explain the sequence of events:

1. An emergency alarm was set off that notified the entire company about an incident, but there are no CCTV cameras installed and the company/driver/conductor was unaware of the nature of the incident
2. The driver slowed the train to stop at the next station (where it was not supposed to stop)
3. A passenger pulled the emergency door handle as the train entered the station, which allows the doors to be opened manually (not sure if the doors can be opened as the train is in motion)
4. The driver further slowed the train because the door handle had been pulled, but it stopped a few meters short of the target area for alignment with the platform doors
5. The staff did not open the train doors as the passengers may have fallen out of the train (not sure where the back of the train was), still uninformed of the incident going on.

So the problem in this sequence seems to be that;

• the driver/conductor had no way of knowing how serious the incident was
• a passenger pulling the emergency door handle could force the train to be stuck in a pointlessly undesirable position that could cause preventable safety issues

Furthermore, it seems that a number of older train stock have the emergency door handle in a position that might be hard to locate for the typical passenger, and also that the platform door emergency door handles might be hard to locate as well.

 

And I would also add that it is often rare for commuter/metro trains outside Japan to have doors in-between carriages, so smoke and other chemicals could drift through the entire train with the driver/conductor being unaware of the situation.

 

The solution may just be that the train stock is too old. Most newer trains have the emergency door handle in a easy-to-locate position and may also come equipped with better alarm systems.

 

EDIT

 

Just to add something that I noticed on a Youtube video, if you look at the timestamp 1:10, you can see the train reversing at around 1:18 I think:

 

 

Edited November 2, 2021 by TokyoImperialPalace
further information

[Jaco3011]

What was the reason the culprit did it?

[railsquid]

Some reasons mentioned here: Train attacker says he targeted Tokyo in hopes of increasing kill count

[TokyoImperialPalace]

It seems that someone tried to start a fire on a Shinkansen train in Kyushu as a copy-cat attack: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20211108_10/

 

I think that there is something odd about the official story on the Keio Line train being forced to stop before the platform doors due to the emergency door handle, since I am sure that I can see the train reversing on that Youtube video above.