Truck driver disappears into swimming pool-sized sinkhole in middle of road
Truck driver disappears into swimming pool-sized sinkhole in middle of road
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Driver, 74, was initially conscious but became unresponsive on Tuesday evening. A large sinkhole appeared at a busy intersection in a Japanese city on Tuesday, swallowing a rubbish truck and trapping its driver inside. The incident took place in Yashio at around 10am local time, Saitama prefecture governor Motohiro Ono said.
![[Firefighters work to rescue a truck driver after his vehicle was swallowed up by a sinkhole at a road intersection in Yashio city, Japan, on 28 January 2025]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/29/08/newFile-1.jpg)
The crater measured about 32ft wide and 16ft deep. “It is thought to have been caused by a crack in the Nakagawa River Basin sewer pipe,” Mr Ono said on Tuesday. “As a result of this collapse, a passing truck fell in.”. The truck reportedly weighed two tonnes.
The Mainichi reported that sediment likely flowed into the heavily corroded pipe, laid about 33ft underground, creating a hollow beneath the road, which collapsed under the weight of passing vehicles. Nearly 30 hours after the collapse, the driver remained trapped in the vehicle as sand and mud filled his seat, according to Japan’s Nippon TV.
Rescue workers were reportedly pumping air into the hole to supply oxygen to the 74-year-old driver. The driver was initially conscious but on Tuesday evening became unresponsive, according to local media reports. The Asahi Shimbun reported that due to concerns over a gas pipe running underground, police urged residents living within a 200-metre radius of the sinkhole to evacuate. The Yashio city administration had set up an evacuation centre in a municipal building where some 150 people were now sheltering, an official said.
