A 5-meter-wide sinkhole appeared in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, on January 28th, swallowing a 2-ton truck. The incident was caused by a rupture in a 42-year-old sewer pipe.
The collapse was attributed to corrosion of a reinforced concrete pipe due to sulfuric acid degradation, exacerbated by the soft, sandy soil. A large underground cavity formed before the collapse.
Initially, rescue efforts were expected to be swift, but the sinkhole expanded to 40 meters in diameter and 15 meters deep, complicating the process.
At around 9:50 a.m. on Jan. 28, a 5-meter-wide sinkhole emerged at an intersection in Yashio, a small, factory-laden working class city in Saitama Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. Footage of the scene shows a 2-ton truck turning left at the junction and plunging into the gaping void just four seconds after it appeared — giving the 74-year-old driver almost no time to react.
The collapse was triggered by a major rupture in a 42-year-old sewer pipe buried deep beneath the road. The 4.75-meter-wide reinforced concrete pipe had gradually corroded at a bend, where sulfuric acid had slowly degraded the structure until it gave way. The area’s soft, sandy soil — a mixture of silt and clay — also made it easier for sediment to be drawn in and for a large underground cavity to form.
Fire department units at the scene initially estimated that rescuing the driver wouldn’t take long. But a combination of factors complicated efforts and conditions at the site quickly worsened in the days that followed as the sinkhole grew to 40 meters in diameter and 15 meters in depth.
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