Left in a pickup truck, disabled person calls Mie facility on his cell phone asking to be dropped off

Extract from The Yomiuri Shimbun

September 1 2023

Mie Pref – On August 30, Tsu City announced that at Mukunoki Work, a welfare facility for people with disabilities in Geino-cho, Tsu City, a patient with disabilities was left behind for about 25 minutes in a pickup truck. It is believed that this was due to the fact that the staff did not know the number of people in the vehicle, and the city instructed the staff to take measures to prevent recurrence of such an incident.

According to the city authorities and others, after 9:00 am on August 29th, a car with six users arrived at the facility, and five people got off. After that, it is said that the user who was left behind contacted the facility by mobile phone, “I want you to drop me off.”

The car’s windows were open, but the engine was turned off for a while. No abnormality was observed in the user’s physical condition.

A male staff member was in the car, but he explained, “I was preparing for the next pick-up and neglected to check. I didn’t know the number of users who needed assistance.” There was no confirmation by roll call.

Tetsuyuki Yamada, director of Mukunoki Work, commented, “We take this very seriously. We will review our operations and work to restore trust.”