The Japanese bullet train in this photo suffered a crack on its bonnet after hitting a man, not an animal - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 15, 2022
A photo is being shared on social media claiming it to be a picture of a Japanese bullet train that suffered damage to its bonnet after hitting an animal in Japan. In the wake of the Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Express collisions with  cattle, this post mocks social media users who are making fun of the Vande Bharat express accidents. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of a Japanese bullet train that sustained damage on its bonnet after hitting an animal in Japan.
Fact: The photo shared in the post shows a Nozomi Shinkansen bullet train that sustained a crack on its bonnet after hitting a man on the tracks between Hakata and Kokura stations in 2018. The photo was taken at the JR Shin-Shimonoseki Station in Yamaguchi, Japan. This train did not suffer damage because of a collision with an animal. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, the same photo was found published on the ‘Getty Images’ website on 15 June 2018. The description of the photo states, “Photo taken from a Kyodo News helicopter on June 14, 2018, shows a Nozomi shinkansen bullet train with cracks on its bonnet at JR Shin-Shimonoseki Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan. The train hit and killed a man on the tracks between Hakata and Kokura stations in Fukuoka Prefecture earlier in the day”.
The photo shows a Nozomi shinkansen bullet train that sustained a crack on its bonnet after hitting a man on the tracks between Hakata and Kokura stations in Japan. Several news agencies reported the damage of this bullet train in Japan. They can be seen here, here and here. According to these articles, a Nozomi Shinkansen train bound for Tokyo had hit a man who was identified as a 52-year-old caregiver from Fukuoka Prefecture.
To sum it up, the Japanese bullet train in the photo suffered a crack on its bonnet after hitting a man, unlike the Vande Bharat express that had a collision with cattle.