Aksahi - Japan

(updated 25th February 2006)

Akashi -- Japan
Ten die - 112 Injured in crowd crush after fireworks

2001 -- At least 10 people -- mostly children -- were killed and more than 112 others were injured in a stampede after a fireworks display in the town of Akashi, in western Japan, officials said.    Seven children -- including a 2-year-old child -- and one older woman were among the victims.     The stampede followed a beachfront fireworks display, a common summertime event in Japan, attended by about 150,000 people. After the show, there was a crush of people on a pedestrian overpass that crosses a road to the commuter train station.    Witnesses described being swept off their feet as a crowd of hundreds tried to rush from the beach to catch the train. They said the bridge became so packed that many had difficulty breathing.    Dozens of people were hospitalized and many more were treated by emergency medical workers on the scene.  Police said they were investigating the cause of the accident.

Akashi -- Japan
Five facing imprisonment over fatal crush on overpass

2004 -- Prosecutors demanded prison terms Thursday for five people charged with negligence over a fatal crush on an overcrowded pedestrian overpass in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, in July 2001. Relatives of those who died in a fatal overpass crush in July 2001 make their way toward the Kobe District Court. Eleven people died in the incident, most of them children. The crush occurred as people made their way back from a fireworks display. The prosecutors demanded 3 1/2-year terms each for a former policeman, a former Akashi city official and a former security company official, and terms of three years and 2 1/2 years for two other Akashi city officials. The former policeman, 54, was an officer in charge of crowd control at Akashi Police Station. The two other defendants facing 3 1/2-year terms are ----, 61, then head of the city government department in charge of the fireworks, and ----, 62, then a senior employee of Fukuoka-based security company Nisikan Co. Prosecutors said, "Each of the defendants is trying to transfer blame to another party." There is no evidence of soul-searching on the part of the five, they said. All five defendants have pleaded not guilty, arguing the accident was unforeseeable. Prosecutors said the defendants could have anticipated the danger of a crush but neglected to take action. The indictment cites neglect by the authorities, though the prosecutors did not indict the city, the police force or the security firm. The accident occurred on a pedestrian overpass linking a railway station and a beach where the fireworks show was being held on July 21, 2001. Some people fell down on the extremely crowded overpass, causing a crush that killed nine children and two women and injured 247 others.

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