OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court ordered West Japan Railway Co. and Shigaraki Kogen Railway Co. to pay 501 million yen in damages Monday to the next of kin of nine people killed in a 1991 Shigaraki head-on train collision that claimed 42 lives and left 614 people injured.
Judge Jun Miura said JR West shared the blame for the accident with Shigaraki Railway because it should have taken measures to protect its trains and officials even when operating on a non-JR line.
The May 14, 1991, head-on collision between a Shigaraki Kogen train and a JR West train occurred on single track on the Shigaraki Line between Kibugawa and Shigaraki stations, in Shigaraki, Shiga Prefecture. The 14.7-km section belongs to Shigaraki Kogen, but JR West was running special trains on the line to carry people to a world ceramic festival in Shigaraki.