The seven-member Consumer Safety Investigation Commission, which was inaugurated in October, has chosen five accidents as initial targets for investigation.
It is hoped that the accomplishments of the commission will live up to people's expectations. The commission is headed by Mr. Yotaro Hatamura, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, who had also headed the government's committee to investigate the 3/11 catastrophe at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The commission has appointed eight experts to carry out the actual investigations and 19 others to examine the results. The public is encouraged to share accident-related information by telephone: 03-3507-9268.
The five accidents chosen as initial targets of the commission's investigation are the June 2006 accident in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in which a 16-year-old boy died when he was exiting a Schindler elevator with his bicycle and it suddenly ascended with the doors open and crushed him; the November 2005 death of a university student in Minato Ward due to carbon monoxide released by a Paloma water heater; the April 2009 "falling death" from an escalator in a commercial building in Minato Ward; and two other accidents. The commission did not disclose the details of the last two accidents on the grounds that the disclosure would hamper the investigation.