woman badly hurt after being dragged with hand caught in train doors

A 57-year-old woman sustained serious injuries Wednesday after getting her hand caught in the doors of a train at a station in Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture, and being dragged nearly 40 meters along the platform and falling into the gap between the platform edge and the train.

The woman, a resident of the city, was rescued after the train was halted by the screams of other passengers and she was taken to a hospital but has sustained heavy injuries such as broken ribs, police said.

The incident occurred at around 10:40 a.m. at Tokaidaigakumae station on the Odakyu Odawara Line, operated by Odakyu Electric Railway Co.

The conductor, usually in the last car of the train, did not notice anything amiss because the slight curve of the platform obscured his view of the woman when she was getting into the third car of the 10-car train as the doors were closing, according to Odakyu and other sources. He accordingly sent a signal to the driver that the doors had been closed, they said.

The woman was initially dragged for several meters before her hand was freed from the doors but she was then dragged further as she was trapped between the train and the platform edge.

The conductor, alerted by the shouts and screams of other passengers on the platform, activated an emergency stop button and the train halted after running for about 40 meters, the sources said.

Odakyu said a conductor is required to check the doors before the train starts moving and that the doors have sensors that detect objects measuring at least 1.5 centimeters in width between the doors and, if detected, prevent the train from moving.

The conductor was quoted as saying that due procedures were taken to close the doors and no abnormalities, including the presence of the woman, had been detected. No station attendants were on the platform at the time of the incident.