It’s a terrible story.” The surprising reason why Fukui Prefecture has created a “pit” to remove the covers of roadside ditches.

Twelve years have passed since the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Municipalities across Japan that have nuclear power plants are now building evacuation roads in the event of a nuclear disaster. In the vicinity of Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture, where the Japan Atomic Power Plant is located, prefectural and municipal governments have opened a series of roads for accident control and evacuation in the event of a nuclear accident, including the Suzukazaki Tunnel on City Road No. 2 Nishinoura, which opened in spring 2022.

I want you to remove the covers from the gutters so I don’t have to park there.

The “pitfall accident” experienced by Mr. A, a resident of Tsuruga City, occurred near the Suzukesaki Tunnel on November 13 last year.

On that day, I was driving a Mazda Demio on Prefectural Route 141 near Shikohama in Tsuruga City, heading north (Suzukesaki Tunnel). I suddenly noticed a car approaching from behind and decided to let it go first. I wasn’t in the mood to be agitated, but I thought of the “duty of the vehicle being overtaken” (Article 27 of the Road Traffic Law). I thought, “I should avoid this.

However, the area around Shikohama has always been a single lane along the ocean, with a narrow shoulder on the left side… and finally, I saw the vacant lot where the accident took place ahead on my left. As soon as I put on my left blinker and tried to enter the clearing, I felt a strong impact as if I had fallen into a pit. I also heard a dull sound of a gurgle and a thud as if I had hit the underside of the car. At that point, the car following me accelerated at once and overtook my car.”

Mr. A’s car fell into the “ditch without a lid” that runs along the shoulder of the road all the way to the entrance of the vacant lot. He quickly swerved and was able to get back on the road, but his car was damaged.

Mr. A continued, “Not only could I not see from the driver’s seat that the lid had flown off, but I was also confused because some parts of the car were partially covered by the lid. It was only when I tried to pull the car into the clearing that I was able to see it, but it was a trap. To enter the vacant lot on the left side of the road, you always have to cross the ditch, but there were no warning signs or poles at the entrance, no entry or no trespassing, or anything like that.

Mr. A’s car was severely damaged by the hard concrete ditch, and the cost of repairs was a hefty 600,000 yen.

We thought the accident might have been caused by a road defect, so the day after the accident we sent an e-mail to the road construction section of the Public Works Department of the Fukui Prefectural Government, but after several weeks there was no response. So I contacted various places, including Tsuruga City Hall, and found out that the ditch in front of the Suzukesaki Tunnel was under the jurisdiction of Fukui Prefecture. In the end, it was a month and a half after the accident when I was able to go check the site with the person in charge at the civil engineering office that manages the road where the accident occurred.”

Then, at the direction of the person in charge, Mr. A submitted a petition to the prefectural governor, the administrator, to file a claim for compensation for damages.

After catching wind of the above information, we interviewed the Tsuruga Civil Engineering Office of the Reinan Promotion Bureau, which managed the road at the accident site. When we asked why the cover had been removed from the ditch at that location, the person in charge gave us an astonishing reason that we could not believe our ears.

The reason the lids were removed was at the request of the local residents. A lot of fishermen visit the area and park illegally along the road. We responded to their request to remove the cover from the gutter to prevent them from parking there.

This was a surprise. By removing the covers from the gutters, they were intentionally making it dangerous for people to park there…or were they trying to keep people from parking there? Later, we received an explanation from the Fukui prefectural government official correcting our statement that they “intentionally made it dangerous,” but still no explanation as to why they had removed the cover after all.

The person in charge of Fukui Prefecture later corrected his statement, saying, “In the first place, that place was not an evacuation shelter, but an old road that used to be used before the Suzukesaki Tunnel was built, where construction materials and the like were stored. It was not intended for general vehicles to enter.

Although the tunnel was “not an evacuation site” and “was not intended for general vehicles to enter,” there was no sign prohibiting entry, nor was the entrance blocked by poles or ropes. A Street View photo taken in May 2022, two months after the tunnel opened, shows multiple tire tracks that may have been left behind when the vehicle got stuck in the ditch.

Also, a “No Parking” sign is faintly visible at the entrance to the tunnel, but the site is not a no-parking zone. It would not be unnatural for a car to pull over a bit into the open space on the left side of the road and stop.