A Shocking Crime: Trapping a Car Inside a Railroad Crossing and Letting a Train Hit It… The Arrested JAF Employee: “The True Face Seen by Neighbors”

He blocked the victim’s car so it couldn’t leave the railroad crossing.

“The other car was too close, so I stopped my car to warn the driver.”

The 52-year-old man, who blocked the path of a following car inside the railroad crossing and caused it to collide with a train, reportedly gave this explanation of his motive during police questioning.

“On August 19, the Iwatsuki Police Station of the Saitama Prefectural Police arrested Kenichi Kato (52), a JAF employee, on suspicion of attempted murder.He is suspected of stopping his car on a road in Iwatsuki Ward, Saitama City, around 5:30 p.m. on the 18th, trapping a car driven by a 56-year-old man behind him inside the railroad crossing in an attempt to kill him.

According to the prefectural police, Kato became angry because the car behind him was following too closely and stopped his own car just after it had crossed the tracks. He reportedly approached the man’s car—which was now stuck inside the crossing—and reprimanded him, saying things like, ‘You’re following too closely’” (Social Affairs Reporter, National Newspaper).

Immediately afterward, the crossing gates came down, trapping the man’s car inside the crossing. It then collided with an upbound train on the Tobu Urban Park Line. The man managed to escape from his car, and none of the approximately 240 passengers on the train were injured. Suspect Kato had already driven away.

“During police questioning, Kato reportedly stated, ‘I was angry because I was being tailgated,’ and ‘I stopped the car to warn him, but it just so happened to be on the tracks,’ and he maintains that he had no intent to kill,” said the same social affairs reporter.

On August 20, Kato was transferred to the prosecutor’s office. Around 8:30 a.m., as he was being transported from the Iwatsuki Police Station, Kato crouched in the police van with both hands covering his face, making his expression completely invisible.

The scene of the incident was a railroad crossing located between Iwatsuki Station and Shichiri Station on the Tobu Urban Park Line, which connects Omiya Station in Saitama City to the Chiba area.

A man who lives right next to the railroad crossing was inside his home at the time but said he knew immediately that an accident had occurred.

“At first, I heard the sound of a horn several times.Then the train’s whistle—‘Beep!’—sounded for a long time; I’d never heard it last that long before. After that, there was a thudding impact sound, like something had crashed into something. I thought, ‘Something must have happened,’ so I looked out the window and saw a car on the tracks, with people starting to gather around it.”

“110, where are you?”

A man who went to the railroad crossing immediately after the incident described the chaotic scene as follows.

“Car parts were scattered all over the place. About 20 people had gathered at the railroad crossing, and passengers inside the train were taking photos with their smartphones. Before long, the police and fire department arrived, and the atmosphere became even more chaotic.

It took about two and a half hours for the car that had collided with the train to be towed away. Even just from the outside, it was clear that the people inside the train were completely exhausted.”

A man in his 40s who lives nearby recalls, “The victim looked dazed.”

“After the train passed, I heard a sound like metal scraping against something. I thought something must have happened, so I went to check it out. There, I saw a car with its rear left side severely crushed, half of it sticking out beyond the railroad crossing, and the man who had been driving it standing there in a daze.

When I approached him, he asked, ‘What should I do?’ So I replied, ‘Call 110, no matter what.’ Then he asked, ‘110? Where is that?’ so I told him, ‘One, one, zero.’ He seemed completely flustered and didn’t seem to understand what had happened.”

Suspect Kato reportedly stated that he was “victim of aggressive driving,” but according to this man, “The victim appeared to be a hardworking office worker. He gave the impression of a very ordinary middle-aged man—I can’t imagine him as the kind of person who would engage in aggressive driving.”

So what kind of person is Kato, who has been arrested on charges of attempted murder?

Residents near Kato’s parents’ home described him this way: “His mother lives there alone now, but her son (Kato) would stop by a few times a month to tend the garden and such. He seemed like a nice, gentle person.” His usual demeanor did not seem to align with the heinous crime of “attempted murder.”

As for the “road rage” incident, the police say they have not yet been able to confirm the details, as they are currently based solely on Kato’s statement.

When I visited the railroad crossing where the incident occurred on the afternoon of the 25th, the Iwatsuki Police Station was in the process of setting up a sign calling for information about the case, reading, “Please provide any information you may have.”

Was this an “accident” resulting from a dispute such as “road rage”? Or is it an unprecedented and heinous attempted murder case in which the suspect trapped a stranger inside the railroad crossing and intentionally caused a collision with a train in an attempt to kill them?

We await further developments in the investigation.

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