Driving on your way to work, everything seems completely normal. You’re going down your normal route as a truck driver. Then all of a sudden, the whole road gives out and you plummet into the giant hole. Your doors are stuck from the rubble of the asphalt. You’re panicking, not sure how to escape this.  You are completely hidden inside the rubble of the collapsed road. You are declared missing, and time is running out for you.

On January 31st, 2025, a road in Saitama Prefecture, Yashio City, collapsed. And in the midst of the collapse of the road, a 74 year old man was trapped inside the rubble and declared missing. On the 5th of February, holes were drilled near what was believed to be the driver seat of the truck. They hope to gather more information by inserting small cameras and devices that could measure the location of the hidden truck.

On the evening of February 10th, 2025, Saitama Prefecture revealed at a countermeasure meeting that they have prepared a system to constantly monitor and check the inside of the pipes by drilling two holes about 10 cm in diameter that can connect the sewer pipes to above ground.

A slope was completed by using heavy machinery to search for the male truck driver that’s trapped in the sinkhole. Firefighters are currently launching a full-scale effort to rescue the 74 year old driver. At 9:50am, the road at an intersection collapsed, creating the sinkhole. Damage was discovered at an upper part of an underground sewer pipe with a diameter of 4.7 meters. Meanwhile, another pipe started to release water, helping the hole become a lot larger. The sinkhole had reached a maximum of 40 meters.  To stop this water from causing larger damage, the Prefectural government continues to ask a total of 1.2 million residents in 12 municipalities to refrain from using sewage systems.