Tokaido Shinkansen Line temporarily suspended after woman hit by train+

YOKOHAMA, Dec. 30 Kyodo - Some superexpress train services on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line were temporarily suspended Tuesday after the Nozomi No. 249 hit and killed a woman who had wandered onto the tracks at Odawara Station in Kanagawa Prefecture, police and railway officials said.

They said the woman wandered onto the tracks from the southbound platform of
the line's Odawara Station at around 3:55 p.m. and was hit by the train
traveling from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka.
Police said they retrieved an ID card and other belongings suggesting that the
woman was a Brazilian in her 40s.
A surveillance camera showed the woman jumping in front of an incoming train,
the police said, adding they also found what appeared to be a suicide note.
The accident halted shinkansen services between Shin-Yokohama and Atami
stations for about 90 minutes, delaying about 140 trains and affecting around
170,000 vacationers heading home, the railway officials said.
==Kyodo
2008-12-30 21:52:14