Japan Tunnel Collapse, The raid came as teams of inspectors fanned out across the country to examine dozens of other tunnels of the same 1970s design, part of an extensive network that is vital for road transport in the mountainous country.
Television footage showed more than a dozen police officers entering the headquarters of NEXCO in Nagoya, central Japan, searching for the company’s maintenance and safety records.
Employees are expected ultimately to be quizzed on suspicion of professional negligence leading to death and injuries, local media said, although no arrests have been made.
Police also raided NEXCO offices in Tokyo and eastern Yamanashi prefecture, a company spokesman said, in connection with Sunday’s accident at the Sasago tunnel, which passes through hills near Mount Fuji.
“We are fully cooperating with the authorities over the accident,” the spokesman told AFP.
Separately, officers launched an on-site investigation at the collapsed tunnel some 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Tokyo. Television footage showed police vehicles and a ladder-truck going into the tunnel.
Members of the government’s accident investigation commission were also scheduled to visit the nearly five-kilometre (three-mile) tunnel later in the day to begin their initial probe, officials said.
On Monday, the Japanese government ordered inspections of 49 highway tunnels as the focus of investigations at Sasago turned to decaying ceiling supports.
NEXCO said safety inspections consist largely of visual and acoustic surveys, with workers looking for cracks and other abnormalities in the concrete and metal parts.
Officials said that during the five-yearly check of the ceiling in September, only a visual check had been conducted and there had been no acoustic survey of the metal parts that support the panels, which each weigh up to 1.5 tonnes.
A truck, a car and a people carrier were buried when the concrete panels crashed down inside the tunnel, setting at least one of the vehicles ablaze and filling the tunnel with choking smoke.
Emergency workers retrieved nine bodies — some of them charred by the fire. They included the body of a truck driver who reportedly telephoned a colleague immediately after the incident to ask for help.
NEXCO said it was still not known when the firm would be able to reopen the tunnel on the Chuo highway, a major artery used by around 47,000 vehicles a day.
Heavy traffic clogged roads being used as a bypass of the section on Tuesday, media reports said, adding that the accident had started affecting the flow of goods between Tokyo and the country’s west.
Japan’s extensive highway network criss-crosses the country, with more than 1,500 tunnels. Around a quarter of these are more than 30 years old, according to the transport ministry.
The country is also prone to earthquakes and despite a tightening of safety regulations over the last 20 years, older structures could be vulnerable to seismic movements, experts have warned.
Japan’s booming economy in the 1960s and 1970s left a legacy of thousands of bridges, tunnels and other civil engineering projects. Although the pace has slowed, big projects continue to be built.
Masami Taguchi, honorary professor of urban sociology at Rissho University in Tokyo said the country needed to shift its mindset from expansion of infrastructure to maintenance.
“Obviously that should include prevention measures against similar cases to the tunnel cave-in,” he said.
“In particular, the quality of structures built in the 1960s could be questioned as the nation was in the middle of the post-war pick-up. During that period, quantity tended to be put before quality.”
Read more: Police raid highway firm over Japan tunnel collapse - Latest - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/latest/police-raid-highway-firm-over-japan-tunnel-collapse-1.181014#ixzz2E4eI0a00
Television footage showed more than a dozen police officers entering the headquarters of NEXCO in Nagoya, central Japan, searching for the company’s maintenance and safety records.
Employees are expected ultimately to be quizzed on suspicion of professional negligence leading to death and injuries, local media said, although no arrests have been made.
Police also raided NEXCO offices in Tokyo and eastern Yamanashi prefecture, a company spokesman said, in connection with Sunday’s accident at the Sasago tunnel, which passes through hills near Mount Fuji.
“We are fully cooperating with the authorities over the accident,” the spokesman told AFP.
Separately, officers launched an on-site investigation at the collapsed tunnel some 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Tokyo. Television footage showed police vehicles and a ladder-truck going into the tunnel.
Members of the government’s accident investigation commission were also scheduled to visit the nearly five-kilometre (three-mile) tunnel later in the day to begin their initial probe, officials said.
On Monday, the Japanese government ordered inspections of 49 highway tunnels as the focus of investigations at Sasago turned to decaying ceiling supports.
NEXCO said safety inspections consist largely of visual and acoustic surveys, with workers looking for cracks and other abnormalities in the concrete and metal parts.
Officials said that during the five-yearly check of the ceiling in September, only a visual check had been conducted and there had been no acoustic survey of the metal parts that support the panels, which each weigh up to 1.5 tonnes.
A truck, a car and a people carrier were buried when the concrete panels crashed down inside the tunnel, setting at least one of the vehicles ablaze and filling the tunnel with choking smoke.
Emergency workers retrieved nine bodies — some of them charred by the fire. They included the body of a truck driver who reportedly telephoned a colleague immediately after the incident to ask for help.
NEXCO said it was still not known when the firm would be able to reopen the tunnel on the Chuo highway, a major artery used by around 47,000 vehicles a day.
Heavy traffic clogged roads being used as a bypass of the section on Tuesday, media reports said, adding that the accident had started affecting the flow of goods between Tokyo and the country’s west.
Japan’s extensive highway network criss-crosses the country, with more than 1,500 tunnels. Around a quarter of these are more than 30 years old, according to the transport ministry.
The country is also prone to earthquakes and despite a tightening of safety regulations over the last 20 years, older structures could be vulnerable to seismic movements, experts have warned.
Japan’s booming economy in the 1960s and 1970s left a legacy of thousands of bridges, tunnels and other civil engineering projects. Although the pace has slowed, big projects continue to be built.
Masami Taguchi, honorary professor of urban sociology at Rissho University in Tokyo said the country needed to shift its mindset from expansion of infrastructure to maintenance.
“Obviously that should include prevention measures against similar cases to the tunnel cave-in,” he said.
“In particular, the quality of structures built in the 1960s could be questioned as the nation was in the middle of the post-war pick-up. During that period, quantity tended to be put before quality.”
Read more: Police raid highway firm over Japan tunnel collapse - Latest - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/latest/police-raid-highway-firm-over-japan-tunnel-collapse-1.181014#ixzz2E4eI0a00
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