Late for work? Here's a do-it-yourself excuse of 'the trains were delayed!'

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Running late, Japanese rail worker delays train

A Japanese railway worker halted a commuter train by pressing an emergency stop button because he needed an excuse for being late, police said after arresting the man on Monday. Skip related content

Masahiro Matsumoto, 23, employed at the Nishioji station in Kyoto prefecture, pressed a roadside emergency stop button at a train crossing on Monday morning, causing a Nara line train to stop for about four minutes.

A police spokesman quoted Matsumoto as saying: "I was running late for work and I thought it could be an excuse if a train stopped because of the emergency stop."

The police officer told AFP that Matsumoto, himself a rail commuter, was trying to cause follow-up delays on the train line so that he could "tell his boss that his late arrival could not be helped."

Police were staking out the crossing following six similar cases and were investigating whether the railway employee was responsible for any of them.

West Japan Railway Co said in a statement: "We sincerely regret the arrest of our employee, which caused our customers and others concerned to lose trust in us."

[BO-SENSEI]

Sucks to be that worried about running late that you try to get way with doing something this.

[BO-SENSEI]

He should have pushed an old man onto the tracks and then he should have pushed the emergency button, just pushing the button is the easy way out.

I also doubt that this had any affect on people's opinion of the West Japan Railway Co.

[IkemenTommy]

The typhoon season or whenever there is an earthquake is the perfect opportunity to pull the best excuse for being late to work. What you need to do is get one of these "tardy slips" at the train station during the morning rush hour.

"But, there was no typhoon on August 3," you say? That's right!
Usually, the train station employee will give you one regardless if the train was delayed or not. The company does not check that deep down.

I use this trick whenever there is a known catastrophic weather condition because you already know that the train is delayed and that there will be other salarymen stenching the train. I would take a long shower, make some breakfast, log on to FG and watch the latest geino gossip news on TV. After I get to my final train stop, I cruise by Starbucks for another cup of coffee and finally get to the office around 11. Keep in mind that the absolute latest time allowed to show up at my work is 10, so I am technically 1 hour late.

[sublight]

Sucks to be that worried about running late that you try to get way with doing something this.

Obsessive fear of running late was what caused that huge crash in Osaka a few years back.