Sapporo Snow Festival

Sapporo Snow Festival, A 61-year-old woman suffered a serious lower back injury when a snow sculpture at the annual Snow Festival here collapsed on Feb. 7, police said.

At around 4:20 p.m., emergency services were notified that one of the snow sculptures had collapsed and hit the woman.

According to officials with the festival’s organizing committee, the accident occurred when a 3-meter-tall snow sculpture of popular animated singing character “Hatsune Miku” suddenly crumbled and chunks hit the woman, who was standing nearby.

The woman, a visitor from Tochigi Prefecture, was with an elderly male companion, who noticed the sculpture was collapsing and tried to pull the woman away by the arm, but it was too late.

The injured woman was immediately taken to a local hospital for treatment, where examination confirmed she had a fractured vertebra.