negotiate

Taxi clipped by train after falling from road in Tokyo

narrow escapeとはこのことですね。原因は今のところ、亡くなった個人タクシーの運転手さんの運転操作のミスとのことですが、ここではnegotiateという動詞が気になりました。この言葉、ただ単に「交渉する」だけではないことがわかりました。"(transitive) To succeed in coping with, or getting over something"つまり、「難局を切り抜けるという」という意味からクルマなどが「（道などを）通り抜ける、うまく迂回する」などの意味があったのですね。Although the car was quite rickety, he could negotiate the curves very well.（Webster）（さとうきぬか）

A taxi that fell from a road onto a railway and collided with an oncoming train is seen in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward on Oct. 24. (Mainichi)
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A taxi driver died early Tuesday after his taxi fell onto a railway track from a road and was clipped by an oncoming train Monday evening in downtown Tokyo, but none of the roughly 1,500 train passengers were injured, according to police, firefighters and East Japan Railway Co.

Katsushi Kurihara, the 74-year-old taxi driver, who had sustained severe injuries including broken ribs, died in a nearby hospital, the police said.

The taxi's sole passenger, a 56-year-old male, also sustained severe injuries in the accident, including broken arms, but they are not life threatening, they said.

The accident occurred at around 7:50 p.m. Monday when the taxi fell about 7.5 meters from an elevated section of road onto the Yokosuka Line tracks in Shinagawa Ward.

The driver had failed to negotiate a steep curve before the car broke through a roadside fence, falling between the double tracks on the busy commuting line, the police said.

The driver may have mishandled his car given a witness's account and the presence of no skid marks on the road, they said.

The accident, in which the first car of the 15-car train sustained damage to its front, took place on the tracks some 350 meters southwest of JR Nishi-Oi Station.

The passengers walked on the tracks to the station after they were stuck inside the cars for more than an hour.

The train line operator, JR East, suspended service the Yokosuka Line between Tokyo and Kurihama stations for up to nearly five hours, affecting about 67,000 people.

(Mainichi Japan) October 25, 2011