Road Cave-in Accident: Wasn’t There Any Way to Save the Driver?

Editorial

16:34 JST, May 4, 2025

An entirely blameless person was trapped underground, and even a search operation could not be conducted for three months. This is truly tragic. It is necessary to scrutinize the response to the accident to prevent such tragedies from occurring again.

The accident occurred in late January in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, when a truck fell into a sinkhole after a prefectural road caved in. A human body was recovered after being found in the truck’s cab, which had been discovered in an underground sewer pipe. It is believed to be the body of the 74-year-old male driver.

The man worked for a transportation company and plunged into the hole when driving for work on the road that suddenly caved in. Shortly after the accident, he was communicating with rescue workers and others, but the truck was then swept away by mud, and he disappeared.

Shortly after the accident, police and rescue workers attempted to use a crane to retrieve the truck that had fallen into the sinkhole. However, the wire broke. While the truck bed was recovered, the driver’s cab remained trapped.

It is heartbreaking to think about the man waiting for help in the dark soil alone. His family’s words — “He must have fought through fear and pain, wanting to survive until his last breath” — are painfully grave.

The road cave-in is believed to have been caused by a broken underground sewer pipe, which allowed surrounding soil and sand to flow into the pipe and create a hollow space beneath the road. The site was flooded with large amounts of sewage, and toxic hydrogen sulfide gas was also emitted.

The prefectural government secured a route for the search by setting up a bypass pipe to divert sewage and excavated soil from a different location. Ultimately, there was a series of tasks that took a significant amount of time.

When taking into consideration the safety of rescue operations, there may have been no other choice.

However, wasn’t there any way to save the man, such as requesting the Self-Defense Forces to deploy a helicopter to lift only the driver out when he was still alive? The initial response must be scrutinized, and lessons learned from this accident must be used in the future.

Similar cave-in cases could occur anywhere. An underground water pipe broke in central Kyoto in late April, causing extensive flooding. Water and sewer pipes nationwide that were built during or around the period of rapid economic growth are now deteriorating and aging. It is essential to implement measures urgently.

Once a road cave-in occurs, people living nearby cannot avoid being significantly affected, such as by being subject to evacuation advisories and restrictions on water intake.

Local governments should promptly inspect water and sewer pipes to check whether there are abnormalities. It is important to efficiently identify hazardous areas by utilizing technologies such as artificial intelligence and drones, prioritize those areas and then renew the infrastructure.

This issue concerns the lives of residents. The central and local governments should make every effort to secure necessary budgets for such a purpose.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, May 4, 2025)