About two and a half hours after the accident occurred—around 12:30 p.m. on January 28—the driver was still responding when called out to At first, the hole was about 5 meters in diameter From the many incidents reported by FRIDAY Digital in 2025, we bring you a carefully selected feature in the [2025 Heinous & Major Incidents Wide Report] series. This time, we focus on the Yashio Road Collapse Accident, in which a sudden road cave-in turned into an unexpectedly large-scale disaster. At around 9:50 a.m. on January 28, at the Chuo 1-chome intersection in Yashio City, Saitama Prefecture, the road suddenly collapsed into a hole approximately 5 meters in diameter and about 10 meters deep. A truck driven by one man fell into the hole. Firefighters immediately began rescue operations. As time passed, the hole continued to expand, eventually reaching a diameter of about 40 meters. The sewer system that caused the collapse carries wastewater from 12 municipalities, serving approximately 1.2 million people. Even after authorities called for restraint in sewage use, it was difficult to reduce the flow volume. Combined with the generation of hydrogen sulfide gas, rescue efforts faced major difficulties. The body of the male driver was finally recovered on May 2. In an article published by FRIDAY Digital on March 9, multiple firefighting officials pointed out that, regarding the question of whether the rescue could have been carried out earlier, “The judgment was difficult, but there were other possible methods, and it was a failure on the part of the fire department.” First, let us look back at the initial rescue efforts based on the article from that time (text in 《 》 quotes from the previous article).