The lifeless body of a truck driver found three months after falling in a giant nest

The rescuers found the lifeless body of a truck driver who fell three months ago in a chasm caused by a subsidence of Chaussée near Tokyo (Japan), local authorities said on Friday. “We discovered a man in the truck cabin and confirmed his death”said a spokesperson for local firefighters. A police spokesman said that an investigation was underway, in particular to identify the body.

The rescuers had been trying the driver of the truck since the end of January, after a collapse of the road in Yashio, a city north of the Japanese capital, caused the vehicle. This suburban route had collapsed at rush hour engulfing the truck and its driver. The chasm open in the ground had then widened to reach at least 40 meters in diameter, almost the length of an Olympic swimming pool, where wastewater spilled.

Corrosion of aging sewers pipes

To counter the instability of the land, the rescuers had completed an access ramp of 30 meters to transport heavy equipment in the cavity, while more than a million residents had been called upon to reduce their water consumption to facilitate rescue operations. Walls were then built to secure the site. “Until his last breath, my father, who had a good heart, had to hope to come back alive, fighting against fear and pain, and that tightens my heart”said a member of the driver’s family in a press release addressed to the Japanese media.

These loss of pavement are in recovery across Japan, with some 10,000 incidents in 2022, often linked to the corrosion of aging sewer pipes in urban areas, according to the Ministry of the Territory. In 2016, a hole approximately 30 meters wide and 15 meters deep had appeared in a highly frequented street in the city of Fukuoka (southwest), caused by the construction of a metro. No one had been injured and the street had reopened after a week of work.