Record Number of Bear-Train Collisions in Japan... Development of Bear Carcass Cranes and Robots Underway

157 Bear-Train Collisions Recorded
Increase of Approximately 1.9 Times Compared to Five Years Ago

As bear sightings have become more frequent in Japan and the number of bear collision accidents involving JR trains reached a record high last year, JR Hokkaido and JR East have begun implementing countermeasures, such as introducing cranes for carcass collection and developing remote-controlled robots.

According to the Asahi Shimbun on June 19, there were a total of 157 collisions between passenger trains on JR lines and bears throughout Japan last year, marking the highest number since statistics began. This figure represents approximately a 1.9-fold increase compared to five years ago.

Japan has taken measures after last year's record-high number of bear collisions with JR trains. Photo to aid understanding of the article. Pixabay.

The line with the highest number of collisions was JR East (74 cases), followed by JR Hokkaido (57 cases), JR Central (21 cases), and JR West (5 cases). Shikoku and Kyushu, which are known to have relatively few bears, reported zero incidents.

This exceeded the previous record of 128 cases in 2023. Compared to the lowest figure of 54 cases in 2024, last year's number is almost three times higher.

In October last year in Akita Prefecture, there was an incident in which a southbound train collided with two bears and, just two minutes later, a northbound train collided with three bears in succession.

The JR Group is the company that operates the high-speed Shinkansen trains. However, accidents involving Shinkansen trains and bears are rare due to dedicated tracks and fences; most of the accidents occur with conventional trains passing through mountainous villages. JR is currently preparing safety measures to protect track maintenance workers in response to the frequent bear sightings.

Crane for bear carcass disposal developed by JR Hokkaido. JR

Even if staff hurry to remove bear carcasses and resume train operations, they cannot readily disembark from trains if a bear is still alive or if there may be other bears nearby, as this poses a risk of injury to personnel.

JR Hokkaido has developed a special machine using maintenance vehicle cranes to lift dead bears. Four of these are stationed within the prefecture and are reportedly dispatched about ten times a year.

JR East's Akita branch has modified trucks to be able to run on rails. Previously, maintenance and repair work on tracks was conducted using rail bicycles, but since these are open vehicles and staff are vulnerable to bear attacks, the switch was made to modified trucks.

JR East is also developing a remote-controlled robot for track inspection. The robot is intended to autonomously travel along the rails using cameras and sensors to monitor the surroundings and report unusual occurrences such as bear sightings.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.