Pressure is mounting on the Japanese government to compile uniform guidelines on school bus safety after a 3-year-old girl died of heatstroke last month when she was left for several hours inside a vehicle used by a kindergarten.
The incident involving China Kawamoto, who died on Sept. 5 after being left behind in a vehicle in Shizuoka Prefecture for about five hours, was a painful reminder of a similar tragedy only a year earlier — the case of a 5-year-old boy who succumbed to heatstroke in Nakama, Fukuoka Prefecture, after being left in a locked nursery school bus for about nine hours.
In both cases, the driver and other staff failed to notice that the children had been left behind by forgetting to check the seats and not confirming their presence at the day care centers.