In March this year, in Kameoka City, Kyoto Prefecture, an accident in which a boat carrying tourists capsized and killed two boatmen, the operating company announced on March 3 safety measures and other measures to prevent the boatman from falling.

We look back at why the accident happened from the footage taken by the passengers of the capsized boat.

(Kyoto Broadcasting Station Reporter Tamon Fujii)

What happened to the boat

One of the passengers who was on the boat at the time and was rescued in the capsizing accident of the "Hozu River rafting" spoke to NHK.

The woman sat in the second row from the front with her daughter, and she was filming the river rafting with her smartphone on the day.

In the footage filmed, at the beginning, the boatman entertains the passengers with his skillful storytelling, and the boat is constantly laughing.

The boatman's appearance changes completely just before entering a torrent called "Otakase", and suddenly he shouts, "Akan, Akan, Akan, go backwards, go backwards."

It seems to be the moment when the boatman who was taking the helm at the rear of the boat falls, and he instructs another boatman to take the helm instead.

The boatmen are then scrambling to take control of the boat, but the passengers still don't seem to notice anything wrong.

Thirty seconds after the incident occurred, the boatman heard a voice saying, "Stop, stop," and then the boat plunged into the rocks on the riverbank and boarded the boat.

As the belly button looked up and screamed, the passenger in front of the woman slid backwards in a sitting position.

According to the woman, after being thrown into the river with her daughter, both were rescued by being swept away for about 2 meters while repeatedly floating and sinking because their life jackets did not inflate.

The woman was hospitalized for one day with hypothermia, and even now, remembering the accident can make her feel sick.

The woman said, "I was prepared to die while I was being swept away, and I want you to take safety measures on the assumption that an accident will occur."