The body of a truck driver whose vehicle fell into a sinkhole in Japan is recovered after 3 months

TOKYO (AP) — The assemblage of a motortruck operator was recovered Friday 3 months aft his conveyance fell into a sinkhole that abruptly appeared portion helium was driving connected a roadworthy adjacent Tokyo.

The 3-ton motortruck fell into the spread successful Yashio City, conscionable northeast of the Japanese capital, successful January. During an earlier hunt and rescue operation, workers tried to assistance the motortruck but lone its flat-bed came out. The 74-year-old driver, trapped successful the compartment of the truck, was believed to person been swept to a determination astir 30 meters (yards) downstream.

On Friday, aft 3 months of mentation to physique a harmless underground pathway for workers to scope the targeted area, rescuers wearing helmets and hazmat suits went wrong of it and recovered the body, officials said.

Experts accidental the Yashio sinkhole was caused by corrosion successful sewer pipes. The unsteady crushed and a hollow abstraction beneath it had hampered the rescue, portion residents were asked to chopped backmost connected h2o usage to minimize sewage h2o going done the area.

The lawsuit was a wakeup telephone astir the aging infrastructure successful Japan, wherever astir of its main nationalist infrastructure was built during the accelerated economical maturation of the 1960s and 1970s.

According to the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry, much than 10,500 sinkholes were recovered crossed Japan, galore of them related to sewage facilities successful municipality areas.

Yashio Mayor Shinobu Oyama, successful a statement, offered his supplication for the operator and condolences to his family. He pledged to bash his utmost for the speedy reconstruction of the damaged road.