New Delhi, India

Technology: A curse or a blessing?

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An athlete's dream of winning an Olympics medal was shattered unexpectedly at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020 after he was hit by a self-driving bus in the Paralympic Village in Japan's capital city. 

Driverless autonomous electric vehicles grabbed eyeballs at Tokyo Games as they were being used like a shuttle service for all the athletes and officials. 

However, it appeared to be a curse for visually impaired Japanese judoka Aramitsu Kitazono, who was hit by a self-driving bus in the Paralympic Village that ruled him out of the Games. 

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Kitazono was scheduled to compete in the men's -81kg competition on Saturday (August 28) but did not start his match against Ukraine's Dmytro Solovey. 

Toyota, which developed the autonomous shuttle buses, has issued an apology and also suspended the operation of the vehicles after the accident. "We are very sorry that the accident has made many people worried," the company said. 

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"A vehicle is stronger than a person, so I was obviously worried about how they were. It shows that autonomous vehicles are not yet realistic for normal roads," the company added. 

Toyota said in a statement: "We will conduct our own thorough investigation into the cause of the accident, and we will continue to coordinate closely with the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to ensure that we prevent any incidents from occurring in the future."

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The organisers revealed that the accident took place on Thursday (August 26) afternoon and revealed that the man hit by the bus underwent "a full examination" and "no external injury was identified."

"The shuttle bus service in the Village has been temporarily suspended and operations will be resumed as soon as it is deemed safe to do so," organisers said. 

Initially, neither organisers nor Toyota identified the person hit by the vehicle, but several local media outlets named the injured man as Kitazono. 

Local media said the 30-year-old fell and will need two weeks to recover from his injuries. Public broadcaster NHK reported that his condition was "bad". His coach said he decided after talking to Kitazono and consulting with a doctor who treated him, the report added. 

(inputs from agencies)