Group of Japanese Rail Commuters Help Rail Authorities in Rescuing a Fallen Woman

The old saying “Unity is Strength” has been proven right by a group of Japanese commuters in a railway station north of Tokyo. These commuters, numbering more than 50, joined with the railway authorities to rescue a woman, who had fallen to the depths under a local train.

The women in her early thirties had tried to board the train, when her feet slipped in to the eight inch gap between the train entrance and the platform. As soon as the station authorities noticed that a woman had accidentally slipped through the gap, they made an announcement through the public address system about the incident. Hearing this, the other commuters waiting to board the train soon joined the railway staff in rescuing the Japanese woman stuck under the train. The incident occurred in the Minami-Urawa station, which is located north of the capital city of Tokyo.

Soon the commuters along with the railway authorities started the task of pushing the train to one side. Though it seems odd, the Japanese trains are constructed in such a way that it can be pushed to either one side. The suspension system has been designed in such a way to enable the coaches to be pushed to one side and then put again back on track. After pushing the coach to one side, the woman was rescued from under the coach. The train carriage weighed 32 tons. Moving this massive weight was made possible due to the combined efforts of the commuters and the railway officials.

When the woman came out from under the coach, she didn’t have any injury sustained in any part of the body. When she came out, there was a huge applause welcoming the woman. This act of united show of strength was captured by a local newspaper photographer and was published in the popular Japanese newspaper daily Yomiuri, which is the nation’s largest newspaper. The whole heroic exercise was completed in a matter of eight minutes. After a delay of eight minutes, the train started its onward journey and life came back to normalcy in and around that station.

This goes to show that when like-minded people come together, anything is possible. Each and every Japanese commuter involved in pushing that carriage had their own work to be completed. But they put aside all their personal commitments and helped the station authorities to rescue that woman. The station authorities alone wouldn’t have been sufficient to push the carriage to one side. The fifty plus Japanese commuters had only one thing in their mind. That is to save the woman.

During such times, kind hearted people willing to help others do not think about any other thing. If the combined strength hadn’t been sufficient to push the carriage to one side, some more Japanese commuters with a helping tendency would have lent their help in pushing the carriage to one side. Crisis Situations such as the one described above brings out the true character in a person. More often than not, one can judge a person’s reaction during such crisis situations.