Trucker still stuck in sinkhole after 24 hours

Scary! I hope they can get the driver out safely!

I would guess that the main body of the truck with the frame was cut and separated then pulled up and now we have a weak structure, the cabin that can't be pulled because it is tearing a part !?? just my guess.

Is it not possible to attempt a helicopter rescue utilizing Coast Guard equipment and personnel? If they're worried about the stability of the surrounding ground surface, it seems an air rescue by an organization trained for such work might be worth a shot.

garypen

"" Is it not possible to attempt a helicopter rescue utilizing Coast Guard equipment and personne ""

Absolutely, should have been the first attempt.

Overhead electric cables probably make it difficult for the use of any lifting helicopter. Sounds like the driver is deceased.

Overhead electric cables probably make it difficult for the use of any lifting helicopter. Sounds like the driver is deceased.

The electricity in the area can be cut, I'm not sure that is the issue.

The lack of stability of the sinkhole likely endangers the rescue workers.

Just hoping this poor truck driver, simply doing his job, can be safely rescued and recovers.

Note to self, do not get stuck in a sinkhole in any part of Japan.

Not just the fact that the electricity cables above are live, they would still be a physical entangling problem for a helicopter winch, meaning they would probably all have to be cut and pulled back first.

the conc wall (pipe wall?) visible earlier gone. responder equip moved away, WL+GP+CG whirly birds are often not allowed to fly over built up areas. the winch guys would be lowered blind anyway. Ground based lifting gear got more oomph. Cum On whoever it was yday, a gweilo lecturing those gaijin who also have a life, bring it on. I now retired am involved in planning for emergencies, with a whole bunch of colleagues, nobody knows it all.

Wallace , I hopes not.... ZZR,note to self if you ever drive over a big dip in the road, stop the buses. please.

Is this kind of a joke? For the last 24 hours the driver is still stuck in a sink hole? Common people you can do better than that.

The driver has just spent the night (2 degrees C) severely injured down a 6m hole in the ground. The fact that he is no longer communicating is not a good sign. I think Wallace may be correct. This is now probably a recovery not rescue.

" Is it not possible to attempt a helicopter rescue utilizing Coast Guard equipment and personne ""

Absolutely, should have been the first attempt.

Lol. I flew search and rescue helicopters in the US Navy. You are not going to get the truck out with a helicopter any better than you can with ground based cranes. In fact it would be much harder to do with a helo. Look at all the power lines in the photos of the scene. Very unsafe. The rescue hoists on most SAR helos are rated to handle the weight of a swimmer, victim and rescue basket or the swimmer and a pilot in full flight gear. You are not going to lift something as heavy as the cab of a truck with a rescue hoist. You would need a way to connect the truck to the cargo hook on the bottom of the helicopter but that would require the helo to get down to two meters or less off the ground so someone could hook whatever cable is being used to the cargo hook. Those power lines make that much to dangerous to do.

Also the rotor downwash can and probably would destabilize the sink hole further and make it very difficult for anyone to work beneath the hovering helicopter. Just the sound would make doing anything beneath it nearly impossible. I don't know how much time you have spent under a hovering helo but it is not a nice place to be. You need serious hearing and eye protection and some sort of helmet. Rotor wash will knock equipment over and blow it away. Not a good plan.

Desert Tortoise

Lol. I flew search and rescue helicopters in the US Navy. You are not going to get the truck out with a helicopter any better than you can with ground based cranes.

I was not referring to the truck, only the driver. I couldn't give a fig about the truck. My only thoughts were for the driver.

Also the rotor downwash can and probably would destabilize the sink hole further and make it very difficult for anyone to work beneath the hovering helicopter. Just the sound would make doing anything beneath it nearly impossible. I don't know how much time you have spent under a hovering helo but it is not a nice place to be. You need serious hearing and eye protection and some sort of helmet. Rotor wash will knock equipment over and blow it away. Not a good plan.

Glad to read good info from someone with experience in that area. That's why I posed it as a question.

Exactly. If there is no danger of electrocution send in a crew with ropes and harness and cutting equipment, open the roof up, harness the driver and pull him out. It is not rocket science.

Is this kind of a joke? For the last 24 hours the driver is still stuck in a sink hole? Common people you can do better than that.

Desert tortiose....I googled "how much can a helicopter lift " and the answer was, for light helicopters, 1200 to 4000 pounds.

Bigger helicopters lift much more.

I remembered the scene in Apocalypse Now when the river boat was helicoptered downstream

Maybe if the authorities "got a bigger helicopter " ?

I still see the problem with overhead wires ect...but helicopters are used to transport building material weighing much more than a person up to mountains.

The comments about a helicopter are nuts

Everyone’s suddenly an expert.

Could hot/warm air have been pumped into the hole overnight , given the freezing temps.?

scratch the heli, what about a monster crane, parked far enough off to be safe..... those things have very very long booms. I suppose they've considered that but....

....for lowering a rescue person into the hole......

Keep the heli onsite for transport to hospital.

I,ve seen it myself.

"Rescue operations have continued around the clock but we haven't been able to contact the driver"

Send a a go-pro down there and confirm if this senior is okay!!!!!

The main body of the truck was pulled from the first sinkhole at around 1 a.m.

The bongo broke in two? What? Must have been a deep trajectory to the bottom for a truck bed to come off or break in two.

I hope this senior is okat at 70 with cold, stress, darkness at night, even with lights and the noise.

God forbid the worse. OMG I hope he is okay.

Everyone’s suddenly an expert.

And they know better than the professional in charge, of course.

Wasabi...it,s a news forum full of self appointed experts, like myself...relax...offer some ideas

Ridiculous they have not reached him.

Yesterday when this news broke, it was somewhat surprising and a little comical because they said the driver was fine. Now it's turned into quite a serious matter and perhaps tragedy.

Couldn't they have had someone rappel down by rope and pulled the drive to safety? It's not that deep.

We are all human. And have a love for Japan and it peoples. I would hope so.

Express concern and worry for a senior that’s trapped, and I feel like @Speed wrote for his comment, someone who maybe suffering. Somewhat comical at first but now a serious matter.

*cynical  people here.

The driver is in his 70's. There is nothing to suggest that his age was a factor in this case but that age group is not generally the demographic you want driving large trucks.

wow 5 down votes in 10 minutes... apparently the "esmart" people are thin skinned...

Just think, from the rescued back side of the truck, we can assume that the vehicle went head (cabin) first.

If you ever seen an major accident involving a truck, the cabin could crush itself to a point that the driver legs, waist get trapped.

In order to free the driver from that situation, a heavy cutters (basically a big siccsors and/or mechanical saw) are recquired, but those are big and heavy. Taking those tools to vertically down to a whole with unstable ground and other complications may not be as easy as many think. Less operating those tools.

Lifting the cab with cranes and/or helicopter... phisycally is possible yes... but since the driver is potentially trapped (obviously he is, since he hasn't been able to come out) and by moving forcefuly the cab may hurt the driver mortally that option may not be feasible (if it was, again, they may already been done that).

Do you thought about those points when giving your ideas?, Now, if you have on-site information and if you have knoowledge of how to rescue a person in that situation, your ideas are valid... but probably they are not since I am sure you haven't even envisioned those point I mentioned.

The main body of the truck was pulled from the first sinkhole at around 1 a.m., the spokesman said.

Leave the main body of the truck. Pull the body of the man.

Why Is there a need to cut the truck? Did they have a meeting to come up with this?

Throw a harness down the hole and get everyone in the village to play tug o war and pull him out. This happened before but it was a well.

Daniel you are spot on.

Why Is there a need to cut the truck?

Because the cabin after going into a hole in the tarmac at speed is crushed around the driver.

Throw a harness down the hole and get everyone in the village to play tug o war and pull him out.

I should hope they are trying to get him out in one piece.

( +10 / -6 )

Are you really down-voting that comment?? lol

"This is now probably a recovery not [a] rescue."

Mr Kipling is probably correct, and the rescuers have already thrown in the towel, but do not want to admit defeat to the assembled media scrum...

Mr Kipling is probably correct, and the rescuers have already thrown in the towel, but do not want to admit defeat to the assembled media scrum...

Not thrown exactly thrown in the towel, more likely a case of the driver passing away.

Earlier today two of the rescuers were seriously injured during their work in the hole.

I am trying reeaallyyy hard to refrain from being critical until all the facts are known. However.... it sure seems he could have been rescued by now.

I hope he comes out alive.

Somewhere in the article it mentioned there was gas lines, and someone mentioned they could cut off the electricity. I agree, but that to will not solved the problem, because if the gas lines are exposed and there are pockets of gas in the hole all it would take is an arc or spark to blow the place to hell

I kinda want to know why they still can't get him out. From the looks of it, a simple construction crane can pull the truck out.

Common people you can do better than that.

I am trying reeaallyyy hard to refrain from being critical until all the facts are known. However.... it sure seems he could have been rescued by now.

I hope he comes out alive.

Very much so, the latter.

As for suggestions that responders haven't done everything they could have to rescue the driver... this is where reliance on English language reporting is a limitation. Japanese reporting has made it clear that the fire department and other agencies have done their utmost to do so, and why it's been extremely difficult and dangerous.

Ah, so they cut the truck? He must be really pinned in there. Jaws of life? Dangerous to get down in there due to falling dirt aspahlt or a cave in. Pulling for this guy. Hope he makes it.

Ah, so they cut the truck?

No, the cab separated the bed when a crane attempted to lift the truck, bed first.

The bongo broke in two? What?

Yes. It did. That is the crux.

Dangerous to get down in there due to falling dirt aspahlt or a cave in. 

Exactly, add some gas pipes, a leak, very unstable hole, an even bigger hole opening next to the hole a victim with severe crush injuries ( whose death they have not announced yet) so now they are recovering the body as safely as possible to avoid any more deaths.

Note to self, do not get stuck in a sinkhole in any part of Japan.

Revelation. どうも。

A long chain should have been available to that trucker to latch against - South African miners get rescued faster than this

Desert tortiose....I googled "how much can a helicopter lift " and the answer was, for light helicopters, 1200 to 4000 pounds.

Bigger helicopters lift much more.

Those weights are what the cargo hook in the center of the belly can withstand. Rescue hoists are much more limited. I just pulled out my NATOPS manual for SH-3 Sea King, a classic SAR helo used around the world and also sold to civil operators as the S-61. The rescue hoist is limited to 600 lbs.

What you are talking about is hooking the truck to the cargo hook in the belly. I am telling you the power lines and all those signs, and their proximity to the sink hole making bringing a big medium lift helo the size and power of an SH-3 or the Super Pumas the Japan Coast Guard flies makes it unsafe to do and the rotor downwash is going to cause more problems that it solves and would likely cause the earth in that sink hole to start cascading down on the remaining truck cab and bury the poor driver.

Exactly. If there is no danger of electrocution send in a crew with ropes and harness and cutting equipment, open the roof up, harness the driver and pull him out. It is not rocket science.

There are going to be flammable sewer gasses and natural gas from broken gas lines. If you read the accounts of the rescue they tried sending rescuers in on ropes but the hole started to cave in on them and two of the rescuers injured. The entire sink hole is unstable. It is very difficult to work in there.

Terrible situation. Do they even know if the driver is still alive?

Desert tortiose....I googled "how much can a helicopter lift " and the answer was, for light helicopters, 1200 to 4000 pounds. Bigger helicopters lift much more. I remembered the scene in Apocalypse Now when the river boat was helicoptered downstream Maybe if the authorities "got a bigger helicopter " ?

More cowbell, please /s. Prayers for the families of the deceased and injured rescue workers, too.