Cops rush student to exam

2005-02-08 14:12

Tokyo - A Japanese student caught up in a traffic accident that could have made him miss the biggest exam of his life arrived Tuesday at the test centre sirens wailing after police ruled his case an emergency.

The 18-year-old student was heading to a university entrance exam in the western city of Hiroshima when his bus hit a trailer-truck ahead of it, slightly injuring four of the 31 bus passengers, police said.

"While highway traffic officers investigated the accident, the student came to them and asked for help," a Hiroshima police spokesperson said.

The entrance test "affects the individual's life. We regarded it was within our emergency duties" to drive him to the test, Shingo Nishimaru, chief of highway traffic police, told reporters about the highly unusual decision.

The student was rushed in a police car, which dashed with the siren on to arrive with 10 minutes to spare at the test centre for Doshisha University.

Japanese society values education as a passport to success and wealth. Studying for college entrance exams is taken so seriously that failure sometimes leads to suicide.

Last week, a Shinkansen bullet train made an emergency stop for a student who got on a wrong train on his way to a college entrance exam.

"It was the first time we stopped a Shinkansen line. It was an extremely exceptional case," said a spokesperson for the East Japan Railway Co.

The student got to the test on time, and the train arrived at the final destination, Tokyo station, three minutes later than scheduled.

- AFP