Japan sinkhole grows to almost Olympic pool length with truck driver still trapped
YASHIO, Japan: Emergency workers in Japan began building a ramp on Friday (Jan 31) to try and reach a 74-year-old truck driver who has not been heard from since his vehicle was swallowed by a sinkhole this week.
The incident has captured national attention since the sinkhole suddenly appeared in Yashio City in Saitama prefecture, just northeast of Tokyo, during the morning rush hour on Tuesday.
The sinkhole was roughly 10m wide and 5m deep but after it merged with another cave-in nearby, it expanded to 40m across, almost the length of an Olympic swimming pool.
The growing hole could be the result of corroded sewage pipes, according to authorities in Yashio.
"It is an extremely dangerous condition," local fire chief Tetsuji Sato told reporters on Thursday at the traffic intersection where dozens of rescuers have been working around the clock.
"We are planning to construct a slope (to access the hole) from a safer spot so that we will be able to send heavy equipment," he said.
He added that groundwater was leaking inside and that the hole was "continuing to cave in".
The truck driver was last heard responding to rescuers on Tuesday afternoon, according to Yashio fire department official Yoshifumi Hashiguchi.
Contact was lost after the truck became further buried under soil and debris, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.
ERODING WALLS
The punctured pipes "potentially allowed the surrounding soil to flow in and the space under the ground to hollow out", Daisuke Tsutsui, a Saitama prefectural official, told AFP on Thursday.
Authorities hoped to complete the 30m on Friday, but a local official said it may take several days.
The operation has been aggravated by the inner walls of the hole - now around 10m deep - continuing to erode, preventing rescue workers from staying inside it for long.
As the sinkhole has expanded, heavy chunks of asphalt have occasionally fallen in, preventing rescue workers from going near the chasm. This has also made it dangerous to place heavy machinery nearby.
Television footage captured the asphalt road cracking and collapsing into the sinkhole, knocking down billboards.
Authorities have tried to save the driver by lifting his truck with cranes, but they could only recover the loading platform, leaving behind the cabin where the driver is believed to be trapped.
Officials have also tried without success to remove sediment and dig out the driver. They flew a drone into the hole to see if rescue workers could climb down, but no progress has been made.
About 1.2 million residents have been asked to cut back on showers and laundry to prevent leaking sewage from further complicating the rescue efforts.
"Using toilets is difficult to refrain from, but we are asking to use less water as much as possible," an official told AFP.
Some sewage water in the area was collected and released to a nearby river to reduce the runoff into the hole.
The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has ordered a nationwide inspection of sewer systems.
Most of Japan's main public infrastructure was built during the rapid economic growth of the 1960s and 1970s. The sewage pipe in Yashiro is about 40 years old.
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