At Least 8 People Dead After Japanese Highway Tunnel Collapses

......At Least 8 People Dead After Japanese Highway Tunnel Collapses By Akiko Fujita | ABC News – 14 hrs ago....Email0Share0 Share1Print...... Enlarge Photo.ABC News - At Least 8 People Dead After Japanese Highway Tunnel Collapses (ABC News) ..... At least eight people have been confirmed dead, after a highway tunnel in central Japan partially collapsed Sunday morning, sparking a fire, and trapping three cars inside. Yamanashi police say the charred remains of five victims were pulled from a rental van nearly seven hours after the accident at the Sasago Tunnel, 50 miles west of the capital city. Late Sunday night, search crews found the driver of another truck dead, crushed under debris, about a mile from the tunnel exit. The driver had called his company earlier in the day, to say he was trapped inside the tunnel, but heavy smoke and fears of another collapse hampered rescue efforts, according to broadcaster NHK. Two other victims were killed inside a separate car. Video from surveillance cameras inside the tunnel showed concrete slabs, as many as 150, caved in, with cars flattened underneath. Aerial images of the scene showed black smoke billowing out of the tunnel. Witnesses report a frantic scene following the accident. More than 20 cars including a tour bus were passing through at the time, but many passengers managed to escape the flames. "The ceiling just caved in, so I couldn't tell if it was dust rising or smoke," one witness told NHK. "I wasn't able to see anything in front of me." The collapse occurred about 2 miles from the exit of the roughly 3 mile long tunnel, bound for Tokyo, according to Central Nippon Expressway or NEXCO, which operates the tunnel. Concrete ceiling panels came crashing down on cars passing through, triggering a fire. Firefighters and rescue crews were dispatched to the scene, but heavy smoke slowed efforts early in the day. Sunday afternoon, they temporarily suspended the search, fearful of another collapse, but emergency crews resumed efforts in the evening, in search of those still unaccounted for. The Sasago tunnel is located on the Chuo Expressway, a major thoroughfare that runs from Tokyo to the city of Nagoya. It was built in 1977 and had just passed a routine inspection in September, according to NEXCO officials. ======= At least three dead after Japan tunnel collapse: TV Sun, Dec 02 07:43 AM EST 1 of 3 TOKYO (Reuters) - A tunnel on a major highway in central Japan collapsed on Sunday, killing at least three people and starting a blaze, Japanese media reported. Attempts to rescue those still trapped inside the smashed tunnel, which began spewing smoke after concrete ceiling panels fell onto the road, have been interrupted for fear they might trigger another collapse. Three bodies have been found so far, television networks Fuji and Asahi said. The fire service earlier said at least seven people were unaccounted for in the 4.7 km (2.8-mile) tunnel in Yamanashi prefecture, about 80 km (50 miles) west of Tokyo on the Chou Expressway, a main road connecting the capital to western Japan. "Dense smoke was coming out as if it covers the entire mountain," witness Kiyoko Toyomura told Japanese news agency Kyodo. The fire service said the blaze was extinguished about 11 a.m. - some three hours after the accident occurred. The operator of the highway, Central Nippon Expressway, said a 50-60 meters (165 feet) long section of ceiling panels fell to the road, and it was looking into the cause of the accident. Motorists described narrow escapes from falling debris, and a long walk through the darkness after abandoning their cars. "When I was driving in the tunnel, concrete pieces fell down suddenly from the ceiling," a man in his 30s told public broadcaster NHK. "I saw a crushed car catching fire. I was frightened, left my car and walked for about an hour to get out of the tunnel." In 1996 a tunnel in Hokkaido, northern Japan, collapsed and falling rocks crushed cars and a bus, killing 20 people. NHK reporter Yoshio Goto, caught in Sunday's accident, hit the accelerator and managed to drive out. "But it was a bit too late and pieces of ceiling fell on my car. I kept pressing the pedal and managed to get out," he said. "Then when I looked around, I saw half of the car ceiling was crushed." (Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Daniel Magnowski) =========== Safety questions arise as tunnel collapse death toll reaches 9 National Dec. 03, 2012 - 11:30AM JST ( 2 ) Rescue workers and policeman gather on the road leading into the collapsed Sasago tunnel AFP OTSUKI — Rescuers found three crushed bodies in a collapsed tunnel on a major expressway in Yamanashi Prefecture, taking the death toll to nine Monday as questions mounted about whether decaying ceiling supports caused the disaster. At least three vehicles were buried on Sunday when concrete ceiling panels crashed down inside the nearly five-kilometer-long Sasago tunnel, which passes through hills near Mount Fuji. Witnesses spoke of terrifying scenes as at least one vehicle burst into flames inside one of Japan’s longest road tunnels, sending out clouds of blinding, acrid smoke. Five blackened bodies were found inside a single vehicle and emergency workers also recovered the body of a truck driver, identified by broadcaster NHK as Tatsuya Nakagawa, 50, who had telephoned his company to ask for help. Later, the bodies of an elderly man and two elderly women were also recovered from a crushed vehicle in the Sasago tunnel on the Chuo Expressway, Kyodo News said, as attention turned to what caused the collapse. An official from highways operator NEXCO said material degradation was a possibility, adding the risk of further collapse remained although the ceiling had undergone its regular five-yearly inspection in September this year. Chikaosa Tanimoto, professor emeritus of tunnel engineering at Osaka University, told that NHK the support panels were suspended from pillars. “It is conceivable that the parts connecting the ceiling panels and pillars, or pillars themselves, have deteriorated, affected by vibrations from earthquakes and passing vehicles,” he said. Earthquakes are common in Japan, though none was reported in the area at the time of the collapse. Emergency workers equipped with breathing apparatus Sunday battled around a third of the way into the tunnel, where they found 110 meters of concrete panels had fallen, crushing several vehicles. But hours later engineers warned the structure could be unstable, forcing rescuers to halt their work as a team of experts assessed the danger. Dozens of people on Sunday abandoned their vehicles on the Tokyo-bound section of carriageway, and ran for the exits where they huddled in bitter winter weather. One man who fled the tunnel told Jiji Press he had watched in horror as concrete crashed down onto a vehicle in front of him, leaving little more than a mound of dust and debris. Voices cried out “Help” and “Anyone please help” from the pile before a young woman emerged with her clothes torn, he was reported as saying. She could not stop trembling, he told the agency, as he asked her how many had been inside the vehicle. “She said: ‘All of my friends and my boyfriend… Please help them,’” said the man, adding the flames were too strong. Footage from security cameras showed large concrete panels had fallen, apparently having collapsed from the middle. The tunnel sits on a major road connecting Tokyo with the center and west of the country. Japan has an extensive web of highways with thousands of tunnels, usually several hundred meters long. Millions of cars use the network every day. ====== PARKED IN THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH JAPAN has recently been in the world news reports due to a ceiling collapse in one of its older tunnels. NEWS LINK : www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20571218 Japan has had some bad luck with its tunnels this year. Here another sad tale from back in February 2012 : tunneltalk.com/Japan-Mizushima-refinery-Feb12-JX-Nippon-s... THE ABOVE PHOTO I just happened to take the above Okinawa tunnel photos just TWO DAYS before the tragic event in the Mainland. It's after 3:30 in the morning. I should be home asleep. But, no. Here I am on Highway 58 inside YONA TUNNEL along the East China Sea. I parked the car and spent 15 minutes shooting the birds on their high-wire roost along the roof of the tunnel. This tunnel is short enough not to need the false ceiling panels and ventilation systems that fill many of the older and longer tunnels throughout Japan --- the very panels that fell and crushed the cars in Sasago tunnel. The concrete walls of this Okinawan tunnel (and all other tunnels in Okinawa) are only about a foot-and-a-half thick --- but no more than two feet --- and poured into place against the natural rock of the tunnel without using re-bar of any kind. I finish my picture taking, and headed south. Not one car had come though the tunnel the whole time I was there. The birds were happy to see me go.