3-year-old child dies, left behind on school bus, third-party committee says ``Lack of awareness of safety management''

In September 2022, a 3-year-old girl died from severe heatstroke after being left behind on the school bus at a certified nursery school in Makinohara City, Shizuoka Prefecture.A third party from the city has been investigating the cause of the incident. The committee submitted its report to the city.

It pointed out that the former director had "a weak awareness and insufficient knowledge of safety management," and called for measures to prevent a recurrence.

In September of last year, China Kawamoto (age 3 at the time), who was attending the school, was left behind for about five hours inside a school bus that was parked in the parking lot of Kawasaki Kindergarten, a certified children's school in Makinohara City. He died of heat stroke.

In response to this incident, the city established a third-party committee made up of university professors, doctors, and others to investigate the cause and compile a report, which was submitted to Mayor Motohisa Sugimoto on the 29th.

The report states that after a similar incident occurred in Fukuoka a year before the incident, the government notified the kindergarten to thoroughly check the number of people entering the kindergarten, but the reason why this was not communicated to the staff was stated as follows: ``The former head of the kindergarten "He did not properly recognize the importance and urgency of the communication. He had little awareness and insufficient knowledge of leadership and safety management."

Furthermore, regarding the fact that the usual driver was not available on the day of the incident, and the former school director drove the bus, he said, ``I was not aware of any precautions or confirmation procedures when operating a school bus, and even that such things existed. "He was driving without paying attention to it. He had little awareness that his job was to protect the lives of children."

In addition, in order to prevent recurrence, ``Poor communication among family-run businesses is thought to be one reason for the inability to develop the organization and review its systems.'' It is necessary to incorporate new perspectives on knowledge and management."

Upon receiving the report, Mayor Sugimoto said, ``We will take the contents of the report seriously, steadily implement the points for improvement and countermeasures pointed out, and do our best to prevent recurrence.''