再び通勤日に、電車の人身事故が起きた

出勤する日の朝、私の乗る電車で人身事故が起きたという通知が来た。仕方なく、小田急線で新宿まで行くことにした。

町田駅から、快速特急に乗って新宿駅まで行ったのだが、４０分かかった。ずっと座れなかったのでくたびれてしまった。先週の夕方に、逆方向に行ったときは３０分しかかからなかったのに、逆方向だと、なぜか電車がゆっくり走る。

小田急線の車内には、紙の参考書を読む、若い人が多かった。ＫＯ線の電車では、参考書を読む人を見たことがない。不思議だ。

上のグラフは、去年8月に発行された、『交通安全白書』の、２０００年から２０２０年までの「鉄道交通事故の動向」である。赤い折れ線は、鉄道事故件数を表している。棒グラフの青い部分は死者数を、ピンクの部分は負傷者数を表している。

前にも書いたことだが、官公庁の統計情報は、和暦でなく西暦を使ってほしい。いちいち換算しないといけないのは面倒である。

この２０年間で、鉄道事故が減少しているのは確かだ。２００５年の棒グラフが突出して高いのは、この年に起きたＪＲ福知山線脱線事故で乗客と運転士合わせて107名が死亡、562名が負傷したためである。

電車に乗る人が増えるとともに、人身事故も増えているように思う。来年の交通安全白書に載る、今年の事故件数は、どうなっているだろうか。

Again, on commute day, the train was involved in a personal injury accident.

On the morning of the day I was to go to work, I received a notice that there had been a personal accident on the train I was to take. I had no choice but to take the Odakyu line to Shinjuku.

From Machida station, I took a rapid express train to Shinjuku station, but it took 40 minutes. I was tired because I couldn't sit all the time. It took only 30 minutes when I went in the opposite direction in the evening just before, but for some reason the train runs slowly in the opposite direction.

There were many young people reading paper reference books in the train on the Odakyu Line. I have never seen anyone reading a reference book on the KO line train. It's strange.

The graph above is the "Trends in Railway Traffic Accidents" from 2000 to 2020 in the "White Paper on Traffic Safety" published last August. The red broken line shows the number of railway accidents. The blue part of the bar graph shows the number of dead and the pink part shows the number of injured.

As I wrote before, I would like authors to use the Western calendar instead of the Japanese calendar for the statistical information of government offices. It is troublesome to have to convert each time.

It is certain that railroad accidents have decreased in the last 20 years. The reason why the bar graph in 2005 is so high is that 107 passengers and drivers were killed and 562 were injured in the JR Fukuchiyama Line derailment accident which occurred that year.

As the number of people getting on the train increases, I think the number of accidents resulting in injury or death is increasing. What is the number of accidents this year in the White Paper on Traffic Safety next year?