The accident at the busy crossing in Adachi Ward, Tokyo, killed two women and injured two others.

A 52-year-old crossing guard is on trial for professional negligence resulting in death and injury. He is accused of manually unlocking the crossing gates, sending pedestrians in the way of a speeding train at the Tobu Isesaki Line crossing.

Crossing attendants say they customarily unlocked the gates at peak hours to let pedestrians pass. Doing so on their own judgment is against the rules.

The railway initially denied it knew of such violations, but a 2003 in-house document acknowledged the practice, said sources close to the investigation.

Some officials in charge of train operations at the head office have admitted they were aware of the problem, the sources said. Police confiscated the document in their search of the head office.

The crossing gates are automatically locked once they are down. But attendants often manually unlocked them because the crossing would remain closed a long time.

The Takenotsuka crossing was known to block road traffic for more than 50 minutes in a peak hour.

Immediately after the accident, a senior company official told a news conference, "The head office has never heard of operations in violation of in-house rules and such practice is unthinkable.''

But under police questioning some officials overseeing train operations admitted knowing about the practice, sources said.

"I heard about the violations when I visited Takenotsuka Station in 2002, but I lied for fear I might be held accountable,'' a middle-ranking official told police in late May, according to the sources.

The official gave no instruction to end the practice, however, on grounds that "there had not been a major accident.''

According to the sources, the 2003 document, a guide for negotiations with the company union, was found in a personal computer and was possibly drafted by the administrative section of the head office.

It stated the gate is unlocked to allow pedestrians to cross the tracks during the morning rush hours, the sources said.

Police have also learned records at Takenotsuka Station show successive stationmasters were apparently aware of the dangers, they said.(IHT/Asahi: June 20,2005)