`We are now doing our best by starting to build safe crossings at some of our tollgates.' SHIGERU HORINAKA Metropolitan Expressway sales chief

The Electronic Toll Collection system may be a boon for motorists in a hurry, but tollkeepers who have to cross ETC lanes to do their job risk being run over and killed.

In fact, three tollkeepers have died in such circumstances since March 2001 when the system was introduced to ease congestion at tollgates.

Incredibly, a blind spot in labor laws means the expressway operator is not obliged to ensure worker safety.

Since tollkeepers are not employed directly by highway authorities, highway corporations are under no legal obligation to do any more than the bare minimum.

The ETC system works by letting drivers pass through tollgates at up to 20 kph without stopping. The motorist must have a pre-registered ETC card and a remote device fitted to the vehicle that causes the tollgate barrier to allow the driver to pass through.

As of January, about 28.9 percent of the nation's vehicles were equipped with the system.

Employees of three of the nation's four highway corporations that have installed ETC lanes have been killed or injured on the job. The entities are: Japan Highway Public Corp., Metropolitan Expressway Public Corp. and Hanshin Expressway Public Corp.

Of the 13 accidents, eight occurred over a three-year period after ETC was introduced. But the last five took place between April 2004 and this January-signaling a rapid increase as the system spreads nationwide.

The first fatal accident occurred in September 2003 at Hanwa Expressway's Wakayama tollgate in Wakayama Prefecture. The second happened at Tohoku Expressway's Urawa tollgate in Saitama Prefecture in December 2003. The other fatality occurred at Hanshin Expressway tollgate near Osaka's Itami Airport in May.

The Urawa accident occurred when a 60-year-old tollkeeper was helping a driver who forgot to place his integrated-circuit (IC) card into the transponder in his car before attempting to pass through the gate. The driver had to stop at the gate because it would not open.

So the attendant instructed the driver to park in the 11th lane, which was closed at the time. The attendant then took the driver's ETC card to another closed gate to pay the fee. While returning to the car with the driver's card, the tollgate operator was killed by a truck going through an automated gate on the 12th lane.

Some, but not all, tollgates have bridges or underpasses that let tollkeepers safely cross.

Under current laws, however, it is the arbitrary benevolence of highway corporations-not safety standards-that determine whether such measures are in place.

Toll collection is entrusted to companies affiliated with the highway corporations. The corporations are under no legal obligation to ensure safety for staff they do not hire directly.

Under the Industrial Safety and Health Law, only the primary contractors of construction and shipbuilding companies are obliged to take steps to prevent labor-related workplace accidents involving employees who were hired ``indirectly.''

Highway labor unions balk at the gaping loophole.

The tollkeepers' union of Metropolitan Expressway Public Corp. asserts it is the corporation's responsibility. It questions the spread of ETCs without accompanying safety measures, arguing that more fatal accidents will occur.

Complaints to the Tokyo Labor Bureau prompted it in February 2002 to urge Metropolitan Expressway to put safety measures in place. However, the bureau also realized there were no legal grounds with which to force the public corporation to comply.

The bureau concluded it was impossible to issue a binding recommendation because Metropolitan Expressway had no legal liability. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare agrees.

In addition to citing efforts now under way, a Metropolitan Expressway official told the bureau that, ``the issue has to be taken into account'' with discussions now being held to privatize highway corporations.

``We are now doing our best by starting to build safe crossings at some of our tollgates,'' said Shigeru Horinaka, the corporation's sales department chief.

For now, that will have to do.

Even after the three fatal accidents, local labor offices were only able to issue nonbinding instructions to the companies.

The highway corporations that own the tollgates remain the only entities that can improve safety for tollkeepers. So far, few improvements have been made.(IHT/Asahi: March 5,2005)