Girl hit by steel signpost blown over by strong winds in Osaka

[Anchorman]

OSAKA -- An 8-year-old girl was injured after being hit by a 23-kilogram signpost that was blown over by a gust of wind here, law enforcers said.

The steel signpost, which stood 3.4 meters tall, hit the girl as she was walking along a sidewalk in Tsurumi-ku, Osaka, with several friends at about 2 p.m. on Thursday, leaving her with light head injuries.

Officials said the signpost, which held a stop sign and a no parking sign, was installed in December 1996. It had been visually inspected every spring and autumn during traffic safety campaigns, but officials apparently failed to notice that it had become eroded at the base.

An official from a local police station in charge of the signpost apologized for the accident.

"We are sorry that we let a child get injured. We will improve our administration in the future," the official said. Police in the area launched an emergency inspection of 5,000 traffic signposts in the wake of the accident.

Osaka District Meteorological Observatory officials said that the wind speed in Osaka at about 2 p.m. on Thursday, when the accident occurred, was about 7.6 meters per second.

The area where the signpost fell over was on the corner of a municipal housing complex and many people used the sidewalk. A 9-year-old girl living near the area said the signpost was unstable before it was blown over.

"When you touched it just a bit it would wobble, and when the wind blew it was shaking," she said.

Another 9-year-old girl said, "There are other signposts that are almost falling down, and I'm not going near them because they're dangerous." (Mainichi)