Police and other authorities on Thursday inspected the inside of a sewage pipe at the site of a road collapse in late January in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, for the first time.
If safety is confirmed, authorities will begin efforts as early as Friday to search for the 74-year-old driver of a truck that fell into the sinkhole.
At around 4:40 a.m. Thursday, a bus carrying about 20 police officers, firefighters and others arrived at the site, which was filled with the smell of sulfur. Wearing double protective suits with oxygen cylinders and masks, they headed for the pipe about 10 meters below the surface.
According to prefectural government and other officials, the inspection was conducted early in the morning because the time period sees a relatively small amount of sewage. Three teams were mobilized for the inspection, and two of them worked for about 20 minutes each.
In the incident, which occurred at around 9:50 a.m. on Jan. 28, the central part of an intersection collapsed and a passing truck plunged into the sinkhole. The truck’s bed has been recovered, but the cab remains inside the pipe.
Since a drone survey confirmed a human-like figure inside the cab in February, the prefectural government has been conducting drilling work to reach the driver’s seat while installing a makeshift pipe to divert sewage.
The construction of the bypass pipe was completed on April 24. Saitama Gov. Motohiro Ono had said at the time that the prefecture will begin the inspection inside the sewage pipe where the truck cab remains as soon as possible.
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