TOKYO (AP) — The body of a truck driver was recovered Friday three months after his vehicle fell into a sinkhole that suddenly appeared while he was driving on a road near Tokyo.
The 3-ton truck fell into the hole in Yashio City, just northeast of the Japanese capital, in January. During an earlier search and rescue operation, workers tried to lift the truck but only its flat-bed came out. The 74-year-old driver, trapped in the cabin of the truck, was believed to have been swept to a location about 30 meters (yards) downstream.
On Friday, after three months of preparation to build a safe underground pathway for workers to reach the targeted area, rescuers wearing helmets and hazmat suits went inside of it and recovered the body, officials said.
Experts say the Yashio sinkhole was caused by corrosion in sewer pipes. The unsteady ground and a hollow space below it had hampered the rescue, while residents were asked to cut back on water use to minimize sewage water going through the area.
The case was a wakeup call about the aging infrastructure in Japan, where most of its main public infrastructure was built during the rapid economic growth of the 1960s and 1970s.
According to the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry, more than 10,500 sinkholes were found across Japan, many of them related to sewage facilities in urban areas.
Yashio Mayor Shinobu Oyama, in a statement, offered his prayer for the driver and condolences to his family. He pledged to do his utmost for the speedy reconstruction of the damaged road.
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