TOKYO (AP) — A truck that fell into a sinkhole that suddenly opened on a road near Tokyo has captured national attention as attempts to rescue the elderly driver drag on. Residents near the hole have taken shelter at a local school, and there were worries Thursday about flooding and leaking sewage water. There's also been a renewed debate about Japan’s aging infrastructure.
Just after the sinkhole appeared in Yashio City, just northeast of Tokyo, on Tuesday morning a 3-ton truck fell into it. At first the sinkhole was roughly 10 meters (33 feet) wide and 5-meters (16-feet) deep, but it has since grown to twice that size.
A 74-year-old man is believed to be trapped in the cabin of the flat-bed truck. He was conscious and communicating with rescue workers earlier but hasn't responded since Tuesday afternoon, according to Yashio fire department official Yoshifumi Hashiguchi.
Saitama prefectural sewer system official Jun Uehara said corrosion, possibly because of strong acid constantly passing through the system, might have created a hole in the pipe, causing soil above to fall in and create a large hollow space between it and the road.
No problem was found with the pipe during its last visual inspection, which is required every five years. The sewage water leaking out of the damaged pipe may also cause flooding.
The unsteady ground, with a hollow space below it, is hampering the rescue. Television footage captured the asphalt road cracking and collapsing into the sinkhole, knocking down billboards. Authorities have tried to save the driver by lifting his truck with cranes, but they could only recover the loading platform, leaving behind the cabin where the driver is believed to be trapped. Officials have also tried without success to remove sediment and dig out the driver. They also flew a drone into the hole to see if rescue workers can climb down, but no progress has been made.
Neighbors are being asked to cut back on water use. Parts of the road are closed. There's also uncertainty about how long the operations will last.
About 20 residents within a 200-meter (656-feet) radius of the sinkhole have taken shelter at a local junior high school Thursday, according to the city.
Over one million residents across the Saitama prefecture, especially in areas where sewage goes to the pipe, have been asked to cut back on laundry and bathing to prevent it from overflowing into the sinkhole. Prefectural officials have also started diverting sewage from an upstream pumping station and release it into a nearby river after treatment, Uehara said.
When the driver is taken out, experts will enter the sinkhole and inspect the sewage system.
The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has ordered a nationwide inspection of sewer systems. In one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, the sinkhole has raised worries about aging infrastructure.
Most of Japan’s main public infrastructure was built during the rapid economic growth of the 1960s and 1970s. The sewage pipe in Yashiro is about 40 years old.
First responders try to rescue the driver of a truck that fell into a sinkhole on a street in Yashio, northeast of Tokyo, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (Kenichiro Kojima/Kyodo News via AP)
Police officers and rescue members prepare for a rescue mission in Yashio, northeast of Tokyo, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, two days after a truck fell into the sinkhole made on a street Tuesday. (Yu Matsuda/Kyodo News via AP)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — An attorney who was present for the planned execution of Tony Carruthers in Tennessee on Thursday said it was called off after officials struggled to find a vein for an hour.
Maria DeLiberato, an attorney for Carruthers, said she saw Carruthers “wincing and groaning” and called it “horrible” to watch.
An email to a spokeswoman for the state corrections department was not immediately returned.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee is scheduled to execute Tony Carruthers on Thursday after his attorneys questioned whether the state's lethal injection drugs had expired and courts denied requests to test DNA and fingerprint evidence or to deem him mentally incompetent.
Carruthers, 57, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson; his mother, Delois Anderson; and Frederick Tucker. He was forced to represent himself at trial after repeatedly complaining about court-appointed attorneys and threatening to harm several of them.
There was no physical evidence tying Carruthers to the killings, and he was convicted primarily on the basis of testimony from people who claimed to have heard him confess to or discuss the crimes.
They include a man who was later revealed to be a police informant and told media he was paid for his testimony. A co-defendant, James Montgomery, was originally sentenced to death along with Carruthers but was later resentenced and released from prison in 2015, according to court filings.
Authorities said Marcellos Anderson was a drug dealer, and Carruthers was trying to take over the illegal drug trade in their Memphis neighborhood. Carruthers' attorneys have said their client's “paranoia and delusions” prevented him from being able to cooperate with court-appointed counsel, but the judge viewed this behavior as willful.
The Tennessee Supreme Court said on appeal that Carruthers’ actions before the trial jury were offensive and self-destructive but the situation in which he found himself was one of his own making. If the execution goes forward as scheduled, Carruthers will be the first person to be executed after being forced to represent himself in more than a century, according to a clemency petition to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
In the petition, Carruthers' attorneys argue that the reason he was sentenced to death was because a medical examiner testified the victims were buried alive, going into excruciating detail for the jury. He later withdrew that claim and subsequent experts have said it was false.
Carruthers' attorneys have tried to show that he is incompetent to be executed. They claim in court filings that Carruthers believes the government is bluffing about executing him in order to coerce him into accepting a plea deal that exists only in his mind. That way, Carruthers believes, the government can avoid paying him what he thinks are millions of dollars it owes him. He is convinced that his own attorneys are part of a conspiracy against him and refuses to even speak with them, according to court filings.
The number of executions in the U.S. surged from 25 in 2024 to 47 last year, driven by a sharp increase in Florida. That state carried out 19 executions in 2025, up from one the previous year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. So far this year, four states have executed 13 people, and 11 other executions are scheduled including one Thursday evening in Florida.
It’s not unusual to see several executions over a short period of time. Last year, four people were executed over three days in March in Oklahoma, Florida, Louisiana and Arizona. Another five people were executed over a week in October in Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri, Florida and Indiana, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Tennessee began a new round of executions last year after a three-year pause following the discovery that the state was not properly testing lethal injection drugs for purity and potency.
An independent review later found that none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed in Tennessee since 2018 had been fully tested. The state attorney general’s office also conceded in court that two of the people most responsible for overseeing Tennessee’s lethal injection drugs “ incorrectly testified ” under oath that officials were testing the chemicals as required.
Bethany Mann, right, and Pat Halper, left, both of whom oppose the death penalty, greet one another outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the scheduled execution of Tony Von Carruthers Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Rev. Rick Laude enters the area reserved for those in support of the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the scheduled execution of Tony Von Carruthers Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
People talk in the area reserved for those who are opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the scheduled execution of Tony Von Carruthers Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Guards on horses are posted next to the area reserved for people opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the scheduled execution of Tony Von Carruthers Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
This Tennessee Department of Correction photo shows inmate Tony Carruthers. (Tennessee Department of Correction via AP)
