Mainichi: Girl left dangling on outside of train for 1 kilometer
Company officials said the one-carriage train entered Hokkosha Station at about 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday. The driver saw a high school girl and boy on the platform, and departed from the station after thinking that the girl had stepped inside.
The girl, however, was still outside the carriage, and was left clutching onto a handrail on the outside of the door, using a 5-centimeter gap near the bottom of the door as a foothold, as the train traveled along the tracks.
About one minute later, the driver noticed the girl. He stopped the train and took her inside the carriage. The girl said a button to open the door of the train had failed.
“I pressed the ‘open button,’ but the doors didn’t open and the train departed,” the girl was quoted as saying. The high school boy on the platform had apparently been seeing her off.