海外「これは犯罪になるのか？ならないのか？」

“Walking on the road is more frightening than on the station platform or the railroad crossing.”

This is what a visually impaired man said.
There are many cases where people with visual impairment have accidents at crosswalks. Last year, 16 visually impaired people were killed or injured in accidents while walking. Six of them were killed in an accident while crossing a crosswalk.

What are the “invisible dangers” that people with visual impairments face when walking around the city? In August of this year, a blind man who was crossing a crosswalk in Kagoshima City was hit by a bus and injured.

The company that operated the bus said, “The pedestrian traffic lights were red.” Yoshikata Koyama, who lives in Kagoshima City, where the accident occurred, was born blind and usually used a cane called “Shirojo” to walk along the commuting route that Koyama usually takes.
Shortly after leaving home, Mr. Koyama approached the crosswalk.

There are several crosswalks on the commuting route, so we try to pass through as many traffic lights as possible, but there are only a few traffic lights that make no sound.

Mr. Koyama stops in front of the pedestrian crossing.
It focuses on the surrounding situation, but even if the traffic light turns green, it doesn’t seem to notice and doesn’t start walking.

But after a while, I started crossing.
It was because I felt a woman calling nearby crossing the crosswalk. According to the National Police Agency, there are more than 200,000 traffic lights on roads nationwide as of the end of 2021, but only about 10% of them are less than 30,000 traffic lights.

In addition, more than 70% of the “sound signals” have a time limit, such as stopping sound at night.