Going Postal, Mazda Style: Rampage Leaves 1 Dead, 10 Injured
42-year-old Toshiaki Hikiji, who says he was fired by Mazda as a temporary worker, allegedly hit 11 Mazda employees with a Mazda Familia at Mazda’s plant in Hiroshima, Japan. Hiroshima Police says he managed to kill one.
According to The Nikkei [sub], Hikiji was waiting in the car at the Ujina plant as workers were beginning to arrive for the morning shift.
After hitting the workers, the man fled. Later, he called the police from his hideout. The found him at a mountain in the town of Fuchu in Hiroshima Prefecture and arrested him. According to the Nikkei, the man, who also was carrying a knife at the time of the arrest, told the police that he was fired by Mazda in April and had a ”grudge” against the company.
The Washington Post cites Mazda spokesman Kotaro Minagawa, who said that the man wasn’t fired. He had quit in April on his own, after working just eight days at the plant. There had been no reports of troubles.
Out of the 11 attacked workers, one died. Another one is in critical condition. The nine others sustained injuries.
While not entirely unheard of, cases of premeditated road rage are very rare in Japan.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I can think of lots of witty comments, but out respect for the dead fellow, I won't. Assembly line work is harder on the mind,than it is on the body. But this guy only worked eight days,so he might of been a little unstable before he was hired. In the 36 years I spent on the floor I can think of about five guys,that truly frightened me. We used to joke"if that guy shows up carrying a long case, run like f---? I remember another guy who would memorize the make, model,colour and licence plate numbers of the girls cars. A group of us would walk the girls to their car on night shift. The perv didn't have the balls to come up to us as a group, But he made it real clear that he would get even. I worked a desk job on a GM recieving/shipping dock. I could, and did wear golf shirts or neatly pressed cotton shirts. This loony trucker came in one day,and assuming I was management proceded to flip out.At the top of his lungs he screamed "GM was sqweezing his company out of buisness,and he wasn't gonn'a take it anymore" "We had no right,to make him wait for hour while we unloaded him" As soon as he started ranting about his 10 year old Bonneville being a POS, I knew we had a "nut bar". One of the lift truck drivers called security on my radio,they come and escorted him out.My boss showed, up as did his boss,and the shift manager. They took the name of the trucking firm,and I'm sure,the guy got fired. For months we were all worried. "That f---ker is gonn'a come in here with a gun and dust us all" We never heard from him again,but it still scared the s--t out of me.
This is sad. As someone who has worn blue and white collars, I think that there are unstable people in all parts of the workforce. Mikey, maybe the feeling of stress and being alone on the job exacerbates the situation for assembly line workers (and truckers)?