SAITAMA--Two Fujimino city employees were found guilty of negligence Tuesday over the 2006 death of a 7-year-old girl who was sucked into an uncovered intake drain at a municipal swimming pool.

Teruo Takami, 61, a former chief of the physical education section of the Fujimino city board of education, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, for professional negligence resulting in death.

Erika Tomaru, a second-grader at Kotesashi Elementary School, died after she was pulled into the intake drain at the pool in Fujimino, Saitama Prefecture, in July 2006.

According to the ruling, Takami and Kawahara failed to notice that the protective grate over the intake drain had been secured just with wires, not screws. They also neglected to instruct the private company entrusted with the management of the pool to carry out appropriate inspections.

I like a good Saitama story as much as anybody but this isn't funny, it's just sad. :( sage

This shit scares me, that was always a childhood fear of mine.